Customer Reviews

The Girls' Book: How to Be the Best at Everything

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book shows you how to be the best at everything. I think it is a great book. It shows you how to do great stuff like building a campsite in the wilderness, annoying people in elevators, making your own bubblebath, making a shake without a blender, and making sugermice. I liked it all. So if you are planning on reading it, I hope you like it.

Alexandra B, age 8

I bought this book for my 11-year-old niece. LOVE IT! If I didn't love her so much, I would keep it for myself! It was hilarious to read - from the HOW TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU WERE LATE FOR SCHOOL to the HOW TO ACT LIKE A CELEBRITY to the HOW TO ANNOY PEOPLE IN THE ELEVATOR sections. I even had my husband smirking and laughing as I read him the sections out loud. I then even called my mother to read to her, and I laughed all over again with her. I can't wait to see my niece read it and learn these very important skills! :) If you're looking for a serious book to get your child - this isn't it. But if you're looking for something that will spark their imagination, hold their interest, and make them laugh then this book is it.

Well, I bought this one as a gift for a friend's daughter, but I'll be darned if I didn't want to keep it for myself!

I've always wanted to know the perfect way to annoy people in an elevator, analyze handwriting, knit with just my fingers, master math and whistle really, really loudly!

All this and much, much more can be mastered thanks to Juliana Foster's book, which is, incidentally, a total KEEPER!

This book is a huge amount of fun! My nearly 9-year-old daughter loves it. She's particularly fond of how to make your own lip gloss. I was rolling with laughter when the first topic I opened to was on how to cope with a zombie attack! Too funny! Ms. Foster's book will make a great gift.

Foster, Juliana. The Girls' Book: How To Be The Best At Everything. Illustrated by Amanda Enright. Scholastic, Inc. 2007

This compact little guide provides advice on many issues of concern to girls including: "How to look your best in photos" and "How to put together the best dance routines." The presentation is in a question and answer format with some black and white illustrations, and diagrams. The over 75 responses, some as brief as half a page, others as long as a couple of pages cover a wide range of topics: "How to do a su doku puzzle" "How to survive in the desert" and "How to annoy your family and friends". Some responses describe accurately how to make an item, like an origami frog, while others are clearly tongue-in-cheek, "How to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope." The lack of pizzazz is a drawback when children are accustomed to bright colors and vivid design, and may result in low sales.

I came across this book in a classroom, and perused it out of curiosity. Only a fraction of the content is generally regarded as specifically "girl stuff", such as pom pom construction, certain dances and feminine hairstyles, bracelets, personal appearance, etc.

The rest of the book contains information of direct interest to both genders, such as sudoku-puzzle solving procedures, chopstick-use methods, ameliorating jet lag effects, hello and good-bye greetings in several languages, etc. Some of the content involves survival skills, such as concentrating water in a desert, use of the compass, the Morse Code, etc.

Parts of the book made my sides split with laughter, such as the entry on excuses for coming late to school, dealing with an alien invasion, how to annoy others in an elevator, various practical jokes to play on the unsuspecting, etc.

I bought this for my daughter (age 8) thinking it would be a collection of lots of fun activities and things to do. It has a few things like that, but in fact it is less of an activity book and more of a funny book to read.

It is funny to read because a lot of the advice is tongue-in-cheek (how to annoy people in elevators) but there are only a couple practical things to do in it (finger knitting, whistling).

Instead, get the The Daring Book for Girls which is a lot more oriented toward activities and stuff to do and learn.

It has a lot of interesting ideas for a girl and is funny as well. My daughter says "it's really good", though she hasn't read the whole book yet. Now my wife has swiped it to read.

It's a series of short vignettes, half to two pages long. Some are preposterous and others are indispensable. So say the ladies of the house....

This is a pretty interesting book. It tells you how to do things like tailing people, finger-knitting and lots more! It all sounds fun, even though I haven't tried some of it yet. I really don't know how much of this really works, however, and some of it seems impossible! Either way, this book is really fun to read, especially if you are interested in stuff like making your own shampoo, pompoms, and a lot of other things. It also has information on things such as text-messaging codes and how to win a bet. Again, some of it really is impossible, like the chapter marked "How to Survive an Alien Invasion". Even if you can't do half of these things in the book, it still makes for great entertainment reading.

There are many things in How To Be The Best At Everything (The Girls' Book) to be the "best" at, but they are all one-pagers with superficial directions. This and the companion book for boys - How To Be The Best At Everything (The Boys' Book) - are a waste of shelf space. Save your money!