Customer Reviews

It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My husband brought this home for me and I tossed it on the book shelf for two years. I opened it last week and read and read and cried and laughed and when I put it down, I went to the computer and bought six copies, and will buy more to give to everyone I know with a teenage daughter. Read the story on page 199. it will KILL you! Amazing. And the one on page 36. I LOVE these women. Thanks Andrea. Sandy E.

I found these essays deeply engaging and thought-provoking. In the course of reading the book, I realized how much more conflicted I am about my parenting decisions regarding my daughter than my son, how much more worried I am that she might not be a self-confident adult. The authors offer no answers, but their insights were meaningful to me, and I've recommended the book to at least a half-dozen friends of mine.

Was given both the boy and girl books a few months into having delivered my twins. My sister, who gave them to me, asked me to read them after they were six months, when their personalities would blossom a bit more. Read both of them, a story at a time. Ended up crying through many of the stories. Definetly could relate with how I felt and brought some insight with what to expect as they get older. I love it and give it to my loved ones when they find out the sex of their babies.

I really really enjoyed It's a boy so I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I have to agree with most of the other reviewers. A specific feminist type of writer seemed to be the only writers to reflect on this relationship. I do consider myself a feminist, but not the type who would be horrified of all things typically considered female. It would be great to read a few stories like that, but the entire book. Most of the stories seemed to follow the same pattern, and I don't think they went very deep in their search for meaning in their relationships with their daughters. It did seem like they neatly wrapped up the story, making them trite and a bit boring. I wanted to like this more. I hope someone will write the type of book I was looking for in this.

As a feminist mother of a toddler daughter, I was disappointed with this book. Many of the essays did raise the feminist issues I wanted to read about (and for this reason I would give the book 4 stars) but the conclusions were cop outs (and for this reason I would give it 2 stars-- hence the rating of 3 stars- a blend). The pattern seemed to be: 1. raise the issue (playing with barbies, wanting to dress like princesses, or wanting to grow up to be a boy rather than a girl because boys have more power, etc.) 2. discuss how difficult it is to raise girls in light of the issue, then 3. decide that you need to let your daughter be "true to herself" even if means dressing all in pink and playing with barbies, so 4. give up / don't rock the boat / lay off those feminist ideals - your daughter and you are better off without the fight. All is neatly resolved within 5 pages of text - even faster than your average TV sitcom! I was hoping for something better than that. If you want to read really good essays on a similar issue (not on raising daughters per se but on deciding whether or not to have children) I would recommend the following instead: Maybe Baby, 28 writers talk about how they made the biggest decision of their lives, edited by salon.com. Fascinating and well-written essays from a myriad of different perspectives, written with honesty and depth.

I bought this book and the one called "It's a Boy", for my wife as X-mas gifts. She loves them both. I don't think she has finished them yet. But she said that I should read them.

I found this book, along with it's brother title, to be tirelessly repetitive and over simplified. Most of these women (the great majority of whom are upper middle class New Yorkers) have very similar stories to tell, albeit in slightly different ways and with a few truly unique perspectives and experiences. Whether reporting on mothering girls or boys: expectations based on very old gender stereotypes that are reinforced by the old, inevitable nature argument. I was saddened that the majority of these accounts were not more imaginative or complex. Catherine Newman, among a few others, were the exceptions.

I got this book because I absolutely loved "It's a Boy!", which totally helped me learn how to relate to and appreciate my son's "boyness". However, I was really disappointed in this collection of essays. I am not a feminist, so I could not relate to a lot of the viewpoints of the authors. Unlike a lot of them, I was thrilled to find out we were having a girl and couldn't wait to get everything pink and girly. I appreciate where they're coming from, but I just couldn't relate.

If you think this book of essays is going to give you a new perspective on girls and raising a daughter, think again. Most of the ideas in this book are extremely trite. I was very disappointed.

MOTHERS BEWARE. I was very disgusted with this book. It was not very clear in the review of this book on what it was really about. It was written by a mother who is very conflicted about gender and gender stereotypes and it seems even just being a mother to begin with. All the Women that contributed a story seemed to be of the same opinion. Very sadly the women seemed to be upset or disappointed that they had daughters, because as most of them said they are weak and there are many stereotypes about girls that will hold them back and confuse them as to who they are, just because the authors were feminists. Most of the Women said that they did not want their girls wearing frilling dresses or dresses at all, they did not want them to have anything pink, and most of all they wanted the whole Princesses thing out, they did not like the idea of their girls being girls, even though they themselves are. I do not think that you should be writing about raising daughters if you are so confused and conflicted about being female yourself. Be proud of being female and all it entails. Being female does not make you weak even if you like princess and pink frilly dresses. One woman in the first story even went so far as to tell her very young daughter that it is okay to fall in love and marry another woman. Once again MOTHERS BEWARE.