Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence [Paperback]

Deborah Prothrow-Stith (Author), Howard R. Spivak (Author), Janet Reno (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2006

Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice is a groundbreaking book that offers parents and teachers a primer for understanding and preventing the increasing incidents of physical violence--hazing, brutality, fighting, weapons, murder--by young girls. Written by Drs. Deborah Prothrow-Stith and Howard R. Spivak—the renowned Harvard- and Tufts-based experts on preventing youth violence—this important book offers a plan to help our daughters become strong, confident, powerful, and independent young women without being violent.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

"American girls are showing their mean streaks directly and violently," write the authors of this sobering, timely book, which looks at the disturbing increase in physical, not just indirect, violence among adolescents. Prothrow-Stith, a professor at Harvard University School of Public Health, and Spivak, chief of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Boston's New England Medical Center, write as both public health experts and parents; both have raised teenage daughters, and in addition to the numerous hard statistics and anecdotes collected from the field, they offer their own sympathetic support and ideas for creative parenting that may help prevent what could be a new wave of endemic violence. While focused on the specific needs of girls, the book also offers reminders that nonviolent resolution skills must be "taught, practiced, admired, and made popular" for both sexes. All adults who work with or are raising teen girls will benefit from the authors' expert analysis and open, thoughtful strategies for change. The appended resources include an extensive list of helpful organizations. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This provides answers."
—Bill Cosby

"This book provides solid insights and suggestions as to steps we must take to address girl violence before it gets out of hand. I applaud the authors’ work, commitment, and their heartfelt and practical advice."
—From the Foreword by Janet Reno

"This book is a much-needed wake-up call for everyone who still believes that violence is something girls just don’t do. Parents and teachers both will be grateful for its insights into how to identify negative influences and what adults can do to help."
—Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children’s Defense Fund

"A timely book! The authors warn of the distressing increase in violence among girls. Their recommendations can help parents and policymakers stem the tide of this frightening trend."
—Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Judge Baker Children’s Center, Boston, Massachusetts --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass (August 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787985910
• ISBN-13: 978-0787985912
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Parents Call, August 24, 2005

By 

Margaret White "Margaret White" (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence (Hardcover)

Many experts and famous people support this books: Marian Wright-Edelman, Bill Cosby, Alvin Poussaint etc. but as a parent I want to say this book has helped tremendously. The pain my daughter and I were experiencing together and respectively was enormous. This book was a really helpful step along the long road of healing. It is many tiny hurtful incidents that can leave a large wound. It is from this wounded place that people find their violent selves and lose control. This book helped me understand that and so I understand my situation and daughter better. I treat this situation with a level of understanding and calmness that I never had before. The absence of this often made me verbally violent towards my daughter, only making our situation worse. I thank the authors for calling out a problem that everyone wants to ignore. With or without the support of experts and famous people- as a real person-I can say book gave me tools and hope and combined with other measures has helped create a better life and better for me and my daughter.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Read for Those who Teach Girls, August 23, 2009

By 

Robin Wilson (Middlesboro, KY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence (Paperback)

This book is a required text in the Ed.D program at Liberty University. Very interesting read. Easy to understand. Good resources.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Answers to an eras problem, August 24, 2005

By 

Mary (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence (Hardcover)

This book does an excellent job of identifying, articulating and fleshing out a problem that is so ingrained in our culture, that few people realize what a problem it is. Often it is only hindsight that offers the insight that this book gives regarding the toxic levels of violence in our society. Hopefully, this book and books like it will offer a new, more sophisticated and enlightened way for humans to solve problems. Because it is all fun and games until someone loses and eye.