A friend tipped me off to this great book for tweens and teens called Respect: A Girl's Guide to Getting Respect and Dealing When Your Line is Crossed. I'm always on the lookout for books for our patient waiting room and this one really caught my eye. It doesn't just cover relationship negotiation skills, but encourages girls to develop a better sense of themselves and their talents, to fight impulses to be perfect, treat themselves with kindness and forgiveness, to speak up and move into action when they see things in the world they want to change. This book seems like a great antidote to the attitudes Courtney Martin wrote about in her book: Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body. (Which I think may also be published under the title: Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women.)
I got a little bit misty-eyed thinking about how valuable a 10 or 13 year-old me would have appreciated this book.
-Nell
I also work with women in less than ideal situations, on a volunteer basis. What are some other titles you would recommend or feature in your waiting room?
Posted by: Lahela | Sunday, January 04, 2009 at 10:40 PM
My daughter is 7 now but I am putting this book on my wishlist so that when she gets older I will have it at my fingertips to give her. You are right, how great would it have been to have had a book like this when we were girls?
Posted by: Larissa | Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 04:12 PM