Gotcha.
Rebecca’s book was composed of dozens of short chapters explaining how-to skills that were absolutely not dumbed down. This book teaches a girl dozens of things–about female spies of the Revolutionary War, the ancient arts of palm reading, how to do a back bend, and the arts of public speaking. It is remarkably un-Kool, insofar as it is detailed in its history and skeptical of easy solutions.
It’s an all-you-can-know advise book about life for 8+ year old girls, drawn from culture. I love how this book skips between history and modern scenes. In one chapter, we read about Revolutionary spies. In another, we read about doing backbends. How did they find a balance between history and modernity?
Andi Buchanan (co-author) We were very clear from the beginning that we wanted the book to be a fantastic mix of great things to do and fun things to know — guidelines for having fun and being creative, not heavily directed advice. Part of the fun of being a kid is having the space to try things, even if they don’t turn out perfect the first time. We wanted to give girls that kind of freedom — the freedom to try things their own way and figure things out as they go along.
