I didn’t anticipate that reading The Double Daring Book for Girls would make me sad.

I volunteered to review it.   We have the original, The Daring Book for Girls.  The BoyChild has The Dangerous Book for Boys which he reads religiously and carries around with his other treasurers.

When we got the original Daring Book for Girls, the GirlChild was the intended target.  She oh’d and ah’d over it.  When I brought home The Double-Daring Book for Girls, she shrugged.  But the GirlChild has entered her teen years, just turning fifteen, and falls outside the intended age range of 9-12.

Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz have put out another wonderful book for girls.  It is well written and includes notable women; dancers,  women of math and science.  It also includes one woman I find particularly fascinating; Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Although it is intended for girls, I think there is plenty in it for everyone.  We play word games and are always hunting for two letter words to use.  Whittling is a lost art that girls or boys can enjoy.  And everyone should know how to whistle through a blade of grass.

It explains how to play Charades, how to catch a fish, math tricks as well as practical items like how to sew a hem, sew on a button, plunge a toilet and get ink off your skin.  This book is a perfect combination of facts and fun projects.

The hard backed version I received was beautiful, with red marbled paper on the inside binding and thick creamy pages.   As I read it, I would call out something we could do together, “we could make a decoupage bowl!”  and the GirlChild rolled her eyes at me.  Or when I explained to her where the phrase “Bee In Your Bonnet” came from, she picked up her Seventeen magazine and went to her room.

But luckily, my BoyChild is just hitting the right age.  And he’s interested in it too……

I see a rope ladder in our future.