This is a how-to books for parents of teenage girls. This is the Third Edition of this book. The topic is navigating a girl's relationships with other girls. A New York Times bestseller, Wiseman starts her book with an Introduction. She spreads her content out in 13 chapters. Each chapters starts out with a brief or longer saying from girls themselves. She includes role-play in many chapters. She provides many suggestions for parents in specific situations where their girls struggle. She ends her book with pages of Resources, a bibliography of suggested reading, Acknowledgments and an Index. Rosalind Wiseman is a teacher, thought leader, bestselling author, and media spokesperson. She is on a mission to alter the way the public perceives children's and teen's emotional and physical well-being. You can find her on the Today show, on Anderson Cooper 360 CNN and NPR affiliates all over the U.S..
This book is a challenging read. It is a long, comprehensive book about the world of girls. I wasn't surprised at how detail-oriented this book is because of the summary its description. I learned many interesting things about the complexities of girl's friendships and how they relate to each other and to boys. It was disturbing to read of the details of how and why girls and boys face intense peer pressure. This author is a teacher and she would know all about the world of teen culture. And it is a culture unto itself. As a Christian, I couldn't agree with her views that premarital sex can be responsible or safe. This book often tells parents what to do and how to do. Her target audience seems to be parents of middle-class teens and above. While Wiseman is excellent and most effective to addressing many parents' concerns, I noticed what was left out. This book has little to say to many families of teens with special needs and to low-income families. I'm thinking of the many families of teens with autism and other related disabilities. All the tips centered on verbal communication assume that teens and their parents have good communication skills. Maybe that's why she includes these role-play tips all over this book. As an outsider From my point of view and that of my daughter's, I couldn't relate to the discussion on cliques and their complexities. I'm sure other parents have different experiences and that's why Wiseman wrote this book.
The target audience of this book is clear. This book is recommended for all parents of teenage girls. As a Christian, I know it isn't a Christian book and normalizes lifestyles the Bible condemns. So Christian parents should read it with the "Jesus filter," knowing that it normalizes some things the Bible says no to. I recommend this book for youth pastors/leaders so they'll gain more understanding about the world of the girls they work with. This author has a counterpart for the world of boys, which I also recommend for youth pastors/leaders. Aside from my disagreement with some points in this book about teen sexuality because of my faith, I recommend this book for all parents and caring professionals who work with you.
I have received a complimentary copy of this book through Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a favorable review of this book.
