Image and Word

When I was six years old, my mother agreed to make for me a very special dress. I was to be allowed to select the pattern, the fabric, the trim; the whole creation was to be entirely of my own design. The result was a puffy shouldered, floral orange confection that was the pride of my first-grade wardrobe.

This dress is how I remember my childhood: creative, adventuresome, curious, and sometimes aesthetically misguided.

If the racks of popular retailers are any indication, girls today are discouraged from indulging in the same sort of freeform approach to growing up. The girls’ dress-up section of Target is an explosion of pink and feathers and sequins; apparently the store’s buyers feel that princessdom is the only career to which girls today should bother to aspire. At the Limited Too, almost-teens need not wait until they can wear an adult size 0 before they can purchase their first padded bra.

And that’s where The Daring Book for Girls comes in.

The turquoise (not pink) cover does include a touch of glitter, but otherwise the book relentlessly avoids stereotyping or underestimating its target audience. Among the activities outlined: erecting a tetherball court in one’s backyard, reading tide charts, and negotiating a fair salary for baby-sitting services. Other topics of interest include a history of pirates, classic campfire songs, and the periodic table of the elements. The closest the book comes to grooming advice is the diagram of how to put up your hair using a pencil.

Even the most girly of the sections avoid pandering. The listing of modern princesses includes nary a tulle ruffle. Instead it emphasizes the fact that the royals are actual people, focusing on stories like that of the African tribal princess who is dedicated to raising money to help the poor of her country.

This volume is the guidebook to the girlhood I remember.