Customer Reviews

I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World

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Eve Ensler is launching her V-Girl Movement with this book. It will be accompanied by a curriculum created by her V-Girls Advisory Circle.

The essence of the book is in the "About" section of her new [...] web site. (Be sure to type "org" or you'll find yourself in misogyny-land!)

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE is the teenage version of Ms. Ensler's iconic THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. It is classic Eve Ensler: extreme, dramatic, alive, emotional, and radical.

Her intent is to end the global mandate that conditions girls to please rather than to embrace their authentic voices. She wants us all to "love love love being a girl."

This book will be a great gift for any girl ~ no matter her age ~ who wants to unleash her feminine power and find her authentic voice.

I LOVE Eve Ensler and The Vagina Monologues and have very high expectations for her work. She did not disappoint! Even though this book is intended for teenage girls, women of all ages will love it, and will read it over and over again. Read either as an entire book or as pieces, it's incredibly moving and motivational. I would definitely recommend buying it and copies for all the women in your life!

I Am an Emotional Creature is, quite simply, a book of diverse monologues, told by young girls all around the world. Whether these girls' stories are familiar or foreign to you, they all are confronting the complex issue of defining oneself in a world full of contradictions, where girls are told they must be polite and pretty and perfect to fit in, yet are encouraged to be strong and independent and to dream big at the same time. Every girl's story is unique and equally jarring, from the simple confrontation of peer pressure in the average high school to tales of girls sold for sex miles and oceans away. This book is filled with girl stories: those forced to undergo unwanted plastic surgery, working in far-away factories making Barbies, pregnant girls, anorexic girls, and girls just talking. Each story is surprising and alive.

I Am an Emotional Creature is a hybrid in the style in which it is told. Though most of the monologues are straightforward prose, poems and scripts are sprinkled throughout these fictional stories, made even more realistic by the many "Girl Facts" interspersed throughout the book. Ensler captures the essence of being a girl and being human without being trite or even touching on clichés, and the result is a bold, incisive, emotional, and achingly real testament to teen girls and their power and verve. This book will not only make you think, but also quite possibly change the way you think about teen girls today.

I will admit that this is the first book of Eve Ensler's I have read so I do not have anything to compare it to in terms of her writting ability. I have seen her on t.v. and I have seen The Vagina Monologues three times over the years and found the play to be extremely powerful and moving each time.

So, I think I was expecting the book to be that powerful also and it just isn't. I think it falls flat. For most of the monolgues, there is no real depth and that might just be because of how short they are. There are a few where you really get a sense of who these girls are but then there are some that totally miss the boat. For instance, the monologue of the child prostitute is a moving monologue. The monologue of the child soldier misses the boat. It is more about rape than being "drafted" as a child soldier. There just could have been more done with it.

Lastly, apparently, there are no good fathers or men in the world if one is to go by Eve's book. With one very, very brief exception, all the men/fathers are abusive, dismissive, or cruel. It would have been nice to have at least one monologue by a "daddy's girl." Just one, that's all.

Also, there is a strong, negative anti-Catholic/Christian bias in this book. Without exception, every mention of Catholicism or Christianity is negative.

There are better books out there about our girls. I would skip this one and look for more indepth ones.

Dena

by Victoria Testa

Eve Ensler's I Am An Emotional Creature is for the girls. The girls who wear what they want, when they want. The girls who ask questions and make demands. The girls who stand up for what they believe is right, no matter how many times they are knocked down. The girls who are proud to be who they are. Simply put, this collection of monologues is all about the unique voice of teenage girls around the world.

In a collection of poems, monologues, guides, and stories, the reader is invited into the minds of young girls going through incredible traumas. One suburban girl grapples with her dwindling social status. Another provides a guide for surviving sex slavery. Another girl works day and night on Barbie Dolls she will never get to play with.

Equally heartbreaking and full of hope, while reading I Am An Emotional Creature, I fought back tears and laughter with only one question on my mind. Why? Why is their so much pain and suffering? Why are girls my age struggling to survive while I am struggling to write an essay? Why are people turning a blind eye to injustice, from across the world or in their local high school?

Eve Ensler brings these questions to light with poetic mastery. Deep and simple, she tells us the answer to these questions by saying: If you don't like what you see, then fix it. She tells girls around the world to heal a world that has been left demolished, because even though they are young, they are mighty.

I Am An Emotional Creature tells you to stand up for what you believe in. It encourages you to dance in the rain and live every second. It applauds risk taking and asking questions. It invites you to be emotional, heartfelt, beautiful, rebellious, persistent, happy, and strong. I Am An Emotional Creature encourages you to change the world by being you.

I ordered this book after listening to Ms. Engler's talk and performance of the piece "I am an emotional creature" on TED Talks via You Tube. It was sent to me by one of my "girls" on the east coast who works at Cornell University and who sent it to all her girls, both female and male. I quickly sent it to all of mine.

I have mentored girls through my work at UCSC and in my community and family and it always brings me such joy to be around them...Hearing her perform the poem from which the book gets its name simply rocked my world. I couldn't wait to order the book.

It addresses in the most direct way the girl in all of us...that most precious of resources that we tend to abandon, repress, abuse and disown in so many ways and in accordance with so many cultural directives. It is a beautiful articulation of the wild, creative, dangerous, indomitable feminine--both an affirmation and a call to action.

I'd like to give the book to all the girls I know. I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World

Eve is a sane voice, crying out in a world where violence, injustice, cruelty, and insensitivity are oft considered normal. It takes a cry from the soul, such as Eve's to begin to respond to the madness around us.

A roller-coaster ride of passionate feelings, I Am An Emotional Creature by best-selling author/playwright Eve Ensler, is often sad, occasionally funny, always moving. Ms. Ensler turns the experiences of girls from all social classes into soul-stirring prose. This book should be considered a must for anyone that cares about women's rights and our world today. Ladies, read I Am An Emotional Creature then share it with your mothers, daughters and girlfriends.

(Recieved complimentary copy for review purposes.)

Eve Ensler has done it again! What a brilliant book! I initially bought this book for my 14 year daughter and decided to read it, I was moved beyond words. I had my husband read it and he was blown away. This book is not only for teenage girls but for girls/women at any age! I recommend everyone should read I Am An Emotional Creature - especially boys and men.

FABULOUS BOOK to raise consciousness and educate in a very well written and interesting way. I can't recommend it enough for teenagers to get them to think beyond themselves and yet see what they share with others. Great reading for adults also.