Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Surivive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman
From Publishers Weekly:
Wiseman (Defending Ourselves: Prevention, Self-Defense, and Recovery from Rape), offers parents a guide to navigating the adolescent landscape. Acting as a liaison between "Girl World" and "Planet Parent," Wiseman helps parents understand their daughters' friendships, the power of cliques and the roles of girls within them (including Queen Bee, Sidekick, Torn Bystander, Messenger and Target). She outlines parenting styles (from "The Lock-Her-in-a-Closet Parent" to "The Loving-Hard-A** Parent") and offers tips on talking to teens ("Don't use the slang your daughter uses"). The second half concentrates on boys, sex and drugs as well as what to do if your daughter needs professional help. Within each chapter, "Check Your Baggage" sections challenge parents to recognize their own biases and remember what it was like when they were teens; as well, Wiseman offers scripts for discussing difficult issues and advice on how to deal with them. The author also forthrightly addresses the issue of homosexuality. To wit, a "Homophobic Questionnaire" that turns the tables on parents with questions such as "What do you think caused your heterosexuality?" Wiseman's straightforward humor, sound advice and practical approach make this a must-read for anyone involved in the lives of teenage girls. Back matter offers extensive resource listings including fiction and nonfiction titles, movies and helpful organizations and their Web sites.
Middle School and the Age of Adjustment: A Guide for Parents by Eileen Bernstein
** From Google Books:**
Middle school is a time in children's lives when they experience tremendous changes: physically, emotionally, and socially. It is a very vulnerable stage when children are exposed to risky behaviors, intense peer pressure, and a possible academic decline. Parents need to be aware of the issues and challenges that their children face so that they can help to solve problems in a proactive manner. When parents work closely with school personnel, young adolescents are guided more effectively. The author, who has worked as a middle school counselor, reveals actual problems that a school counselor might encounter among students and provides vignettes of student situations and conversations with parents. She provides many suggestions to help parents establish boundaries for their children and give guidance as they navigate the troubled waters of early adolescence. She stresses that parents who are informed about the problems their children will face can better help them deal with the issues.
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
From Publishers Weekly:
From her work as a psychotherapist for adolescent females, Pipher here posits and persuasively argues her thesis that today's teenaged girls are coming of age in "a girl-poisoning culture." Backed by anecdotal evidence and research findings, she suggests that, despite the advances of feminism, young women continue to be victims of abuse, self-mutilation (e.g., anorexia), consumerism and media pressure to conform to others' ideals. With sympathy and focus she cites case histories to illustrate the struggles required of adolescent girls to maintain a sense of themselves among the mixed messages they receive from society, their schools and, often, their families. Pipher offers concrete suggestions for ways by which girls can build and maintain a strong sense of self, e.g., keeping a diary, observing their social context as an anthropologist might, distinguishing between thoughts and feelings. Pipher is an eloquent advocate.
Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying by Cheryl Dellasega
From Amazon.com:
Mary Pipher's bestselling Reviving Ophelia triggered widespread interest in the culture of preteen and teenage girls and the seeming epidemic of relational aggression (bullying) among them. Gossip, teasing, forming cliques, and other cruel behaviors are the basis of this bullying, which harms both victim and aggressor. Until now, no one has been able to offer practical and effective solutions that stop girls from hurting each other with words and actions. But in Girl Wars, two experts explain not only how to prevent such behavior but also how to intervene should it happen, as well as overcome the culture that breeds it.
Illustrated by compelling true stories from mothers and girls, the authors offer effective, easy-to-implement strategies that range from preventive to prescriptive, such as how to:
- Adopt a "help, don't hurt" strategy
- Provide positive role models
- Teach communication skills online and off
- Stress assertiveness, not aggressiveness
- Learn conflict resolution skills
- Identify alternatives to bullying behavior
With their combined experience in offering and evaluating programs that combat bullying, the authors show that girls not only want to help rather than hurt each other, they can do so with guidance from concerned adults.
GirlWise: How to Be Confident, Capable, Cool, and in Control by Julia Devillers
From School Library Journal:
Grade 8 Up-Teenage girls have all kinds of concerns from seemingly trivial ones such as how to say "hi" to more momentous occasions like the first job interview. Along with these concerns, this book covers a wide range of topics with an overall intent of guiding girls toward becoming well-balanced young women. Successful people of all ages are tapped for advice. Hip and chatty in style, GirlWise encourages a self-confident, independent attitude that includes being considerate of others. As part of fostering healthy self-esteem, it tells how to create one's own style without becoming a fashion zombie, how to appreciate and take sensible care of one's body, and how to deal with rejection. While body image is discussed, it is more in the vein of self-acceptance, diet, and exercise-this book does not venture into the realm of sexual issues. Readers can also find out how to unclog a toilet, change a diaper, do laundry, and start a band. The last two chapters, "Be Caring" and "Be Conscious," point the way toward attitudes and actions that result in a truly mature person. This is a silly, serious, and totally fun book for those who want to take charge of their lives and evolve into first-class, well-rounded adults.
The Girl's Guide to Loving Yourself: A book about falling in love with the person who matters most … YOU! Edited by Diane Mastromarino
From Amazon.com:
THE GIRL'S GUIDE TO LOVING YOURSELF is a face-lift, a pick me up, a bubble bath, a wake-up call, and a full-body massage for your life. In other words, it's exactly what you need to be the best you that you can possibly be. You deserve to be loved 24/7, 365 days a year. Simple? No. Worth the effort? Definitely. Loving yourself takes lots of confidence and very little self-criticism. It takes acceptance and understanding and more courage than you may feel like you have some days. It's challenging your mind, knowing what's best for your heart, and taking tip-top care of your body. If you're like most girls, you know that loving yourself is far from easy. The good news is that it's definitely not impossible. THE GIRL'S GUIDE TO LOVING YOURSELF offers that extra boost of self-esteem you need to walk into a crowded room feeling confident, and to stand in front of a bedroom mirror feeling satisfied. It is the perfect mixture of wisdom, guidance, inspiration, and laughter you need to fall head over heels in love with the one person who matters most… you.
