The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [0]
Andrea J. Buchanan
Miriam PesKowitz
Illustrations by Alexis Seabrook
To the most daring girl I know:
my grandmother Margaret Mullinix—A.B.
To my daughters, Samira and Amelia Jane—M.P.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
INTRODUCTION
ESSENTIAL GEAR
Rules of the Game: Basketball
Rules of the Game: Netball
Palm Reading
The History of Writing, and Writing in Cursive Italics
Fourteen Games of Tag
Spanish Terms of Endearment, Idioms, and Other Items of Note
Daring Spanish Girls
Pressing Flowers
Four Square
Princesses Today
How To Whistle With Two Fingers
Chinese Jump Rope
Double Dutch Jump Rope
How To Tie a Sari (And a Chiton)
Hopscotch, Tetherball, Jump Rope
Queens of the Ancient World I
Knots and Stitches
Rules of the Game: Softball
Caring For Your Softball Glove
Playing Cards: Hearts and Gin
South Sea Islands
Putting Your Hair Up With a Pencil
Cartwheels and Back Walk-Overs
Weather
Lemon-Powered Clock
Snowballs
Every Girl’s Toolbox
Going to Africa
Bandana Tying
Five Karate Moves
The Daring Girls Guide to Danger
French Terms of Endearment, Expressions, and Other Items of Note
Joan of Arc
Making a Willow Whistle
Periodic Table of the Elements
Vimeiar and Baking Soda
Rules of the Game: Bowling
Queens of the Ancient World II
Secret Garden
Friendship Bracelets
Slumber Party Games
Making a Cloth-Covered Book
Pirates
A Short History of Women Inventors and Scientists
Sleep Outs
The Sit-Upon
Lamp, Lantern, Flashlight
Explorers
Building a Campfire
Campfire Songs
Coolest Paper Airplane Ever
Albigail Adams’ Letters with John Adams
Clubhouses and Forts
Daisy Chains and Ivy Crowns
God’s Eyes / Ojos de Dios
Writing Letters
Reading Tide Charts
Making a Seine Net
Women Spies
How To Be a Spy
Climbing
Queens of the Ancient World III
Lemonade Stand
How to Paddle a Canoe
The Ultimate Scooter
Bird Watching
Modern Women Leaders
Rules of the Game: Darts
Math Tricks
Words to Impress
Tree Swing
Yoga: Sun Salutation
Three Silly Pranks
What is the Bill of Rights?
The Three Sisters
Peach Pit Rings
First Aid
Queens of the Ancient World IV
Roller Skating
Boys
Robert’s Rules
Watercolor Painting On the Go
Making a Peg Board Game
Handclap Games
Finance: Interest, Stocks, and Bonds
Marco Polo and Water Polo
A Short History of Women Olympic Firsts
How to Negotiate a Salary
Public Speaking
Telling Ghost Stories
How to Change a Tire
Make Your Own Quill Pen
Hiking
Greek and Latin Root Words
Paper Flowers and Capillary Action
Cootie Catchers
Jacks
Queens of the Ancient World V
Japanese T-Shirt Folding
States, Statehood, Capitals, Flowers, and Trees—plus Canada!
Make Your Own Paper
Books That Will Change Your Life
Miscellanea
Daring Book for Girls Badges
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Acknowledgments
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
WE WERE GIRLS in the days before the Web, cell phones, or even voicemail. Telephones had cords and were dialed by, well, actually dialing. We listened to records and cassette tapes—we were practically grown-ups before CDs came to pass—and more often than not, we did daring things like walk to school by ourselves. Ride our banana-seat bikes to the local store. Babysit when we were still young enough to be babysat ourselves. Spent hours on our own, playing hopscotch or tetherball, building a fort in our rooms, or turning our suburban neighborhood into the perfect setting for covert ops, impromptu ball games, and imaginary medieval kingdoms.
Girls today are girls of the twenty-first century, with email accounts, digital cable, iPods, and complex video games. Their childhood is in many ways much cooler than ours—what we would have given for a remote control, a rock-climbing wall, or video chatting! In other ways, though, girlhood today has become high-pressured and competitive, and girls are inducted into grownup-hood sooner, becoming tweens and teens and adult women before their time.
In the face of all this pressure, we present stories and projects galore,