I was intrigued by this book's title after reading The Dangerous Book for Boys which provided me with a fun walk down memory lane. Having read that book made me aware that I didn't only play with boys when I was growing up, I also spent many happy hours playing with boys and girls together. Naturally, in those days playing together usually meant doing what the girls wanted to do. Why? They were bigger, smarter, and tougher than we boys were at that age.
My daughters by comparison grew up in a different age when there was much less mixing of the sexes during play. As a result, my daughters missed out on such favorites from my youth as various kinds of tag, four square, paper airplanes, clubhouses, forts, paddling canoes, math tricks, roller skating, card games, simple gymnastics, and various other schoolyard games . . . especially tetherball . . . ah, tetherball! I wish this book had been available then. I would have given it to them.
You cannot assume anything about today's girls and young women so the book covers traditional female favorites (nice handwriting, pressing flowers, jump rope, softball, using a pencil to put up your hair, slumber party games, cloth-covered books, sleep outs, lemonade stand, handclap games, ghost stories, jacks, friendship bracelets, and paper flowers. For those who don't want to feel like they are limited by being females, there are sections on tool kits, knots, building a campfire, reading tide charts, building a scooter, changing a tire, and becoming a spy. There are also sections that would be of value to any child: Robert's Rules of Order, watercolor painting, finance, negotiating a salary, public speaking, vocabulary, yoga, first aid, periodic table of the elements, and playing basketball.
I found myself having a very good time reading the materials. They are well illustrated and interesting.
I didn't have very many quibbles but they were mostly related to condensing material. For example, How to Whistle with Two Fingers starts with "Make a triangle with your pinkies . . . ." Now how can two fingers make a triangle? Beats me. In lists of princesses, some are noted for having gone through a divorce. Surely, there's something more interesting about those princesses than a failed marriage. As a result, I found about 20 percent of the sections weren't too usable because I either couldn't figure out what they were trying to tell me or they were telling me something that no one needs to know. But after all, I'm just a dumb old boy . . . so maybe those smart young girls today can figure it out. I hope so.
I wished the book would have had a few more sections on adventuresome things to do with friends rather than merely social things. A lot of things my daughters did and loved at camp weren't covered.
On behalf of my mother who always kept lots of scrapbooks, I should note that her interest was at least as strong in princes as it was in princesses. This book lacked in princes but does very well with queens and princesses.
I was surprised to see that the many heroines in the Bible weren't represented here in the history of women sections. Now, there were some adventuresome women!