Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15864 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys: Surviving Crushes, Staying True to Yourself, & Other Love Stuff! by Nancy Holyoke, illus. by Bonnie Timmons, gives advice in sections called "How to tell him you like him," "Competition & jealousy" and "How to break up." Teens can read letters from girls and advice from boys as well as trying the "pop" quizzes sprinkled throughout.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-This upbeat title travels familiar ground, dispensing good advice to girls who are experiencing the first twinges of romance. The book is organized into five main sections: "Brave New World," covering crushes; "Who Likes Who" or how to let a boy know you are interested; "Life in the Fishbowl" on balancing friends and boyfriends; and "Going Together," which offers some ideas for hanging out and advice on the first kiss. The final topic, "Taking Care of You," features a quiz aimed at evaluating how girls are handling themselves in the arena of life with boys. The lively text is interspersed with quick tests and letters from girls. The overall theme, that of developing self-confidence, comes through loud and clear. The comic-book graphics, friendly fonts, and use of color will be appreciated by teens. While none of the information presented here is new, the book does a good job of covering the basics, and readers who are searching for an answer to "Does he like me?" will find help in this text.

Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. This book offers helpful advice to girls who are suddenly seeing boys as something other than an annoyance. Topics range from balancing friends and boyfriends, and chaste but fun suggestions for what to do when "going out" to surviving the inevitable rejection. The focus is on social, not sexual, aspects of those first opposite-sex relationships (these youngsters have just about gotten around to first kisses). The book is sprinkled with "letters" purported to be by real kids, but no acknowledgments are included. There are also several quizzes of the teen-magazine, pop-psychology variety. Cartoon illustrations (some with hard-to-read hand-printed dialogue bubbles) will either amuse or annoy. Although youngsters spend a sadly brief time at the training-wheels stage in their relationships, it's a confusing period; the advice offered in this book is conservative, age-appropriate, and reassuring. Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Dr. Holstein, Positive Psychologist, says what a great companion book for every girl!
The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingRave reviews for this book! As a positive psychologist and a school psychologist for over 25 years, I know too well how girls can suffer and feel alone and misunderstood during early crushes. In fact, I consider this issue so important, that it is one of my major themes that the girl in my new book for girls, The Truth, I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything, has to deal with. She expresses her deepest feeling to her diary but her own mother and her best friend don't really understand. If only she had had this book! It might have helped. What I love about this book is that feelings are shared and explained as wholesome, and also examples of how to talk to your mom, etc. are given. This book is a great companion book to my book. I can see the author and myself giving a talk where we share the different ways we entered a serious problem, one book nonfiction, one fiction. But we are all trying to help girls feel comfortable with their feelings and feel good about who they are. Wait a minute. I have a radio show, Kids, Tweens and Teens, a Positive Psychologist Looks at all Three. I think I'll invite her to be my guest. Stay tuned!

Preteen Reading
This book is a must for the young lady getting ready to enter Junior High. Wisely answers many of those troublesome questions regarding boy-girl and girl-girl relationships that create angst for the young lady. Gives young girls a smoother transition to this world of expanded relationships.

Contradicts our family values
I would not suggest this book for a Christian family. The premise is commendable, but the content contradicts how we are trying to raise our daughter. For example, the book offers tips for a first kiss to girls as young as ten, and insinuates that such behavior is normal and acceptable. I have worked with children in this age group, and I know it is possible to balance hormonal changes and desires without experimenting with romantic or physical relationships prematurely. This may work for some families, but Christian parents should use a more biblically sound text, as well as scripture and common sense, to address these issues with their children.