Despite the subtitle, this book’s affirming messages can serve diverse genders.
In the opening of this self-esteem builder, Kidada Jones tells readers that the education system failed her; she matriculated through 11 schools and was kicked out of eight.
This is the book she didn’t have growing up. It starts with the premise that a girl is a mini-universe, referencing astrophysics that teaches how atoms and molecules in our bodies contain the same materials that exist in the visible universe. Each chapter ends with a “So you’re telling me this because…?” section, offering an alternative teaching model that explains the benefit of each lesson. Throughout the book, readers are advised to create a “soul-soothing tool kit,” a shoe box to be filled with affordable, creative supplies that are used for ongoing activities related to the theme of each chapter. Lessons include mindfulness exercises, reflective writing activities, yoga poses, and affirmations, along with several activities that help inspire mental and emotional well-being. Jones offers healthy-eating tips that include simple and nutritious recipes. This book has a strong New Age feel, with its allusions to the power of energy, vibes, and dreamcatchers, but it also gets practical, addressing bullying, crushes, and learning how to be a good friend. The coolest thing about this book is that none of the activities involve using social media, leaving readers to truly tap into the creative, undistracted self.
Despite the subtitle, this book’s affirming messages can serve diverse genders. (Nonfiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60868-458-8
Page Count: 168
Publisher: New World Library
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Full of razors that cut—and razors to cut off shackles: a must.
A slim volume sharp as knives.
Lacing traditional fairy tales through real-life perils, Heppermann produces short poems with raw pain, scathing commentary and fierce liberation. There’s no linear arc; instead, girls buck and fight and hurt. One poem takes the expression “You Go, Girl!” literally, banishing anyone with “wetness, dryness, tightness, looseness, / redness, yellowing, blackheads, whiteheads, the blues.” In a structure heartbreakingly inverted from “The Three Little Pigs” (and nodding to “Rumpelstiltskin”), one girl’s body goes from “a house of bricks, / point guard on the JV team” to “a house of sticks, / kindling in Converse high-tops,” until finally “she’s building herself out of straw / as light as the needle swimming in her bathroom scale. / The smaller the number, the closer to gold.” She’s her own wolf, destroying herself. Sexual repression, molestation and endless beauty judgments bite and sting, causing eating disorders, self-injury, internalization of rules—and rebellion. A hypothetical miller’s daughter says, “No, I can’t spin that room full of straw into gold. / …. / No, I can’t give you the child; / the child will never exist.” Gretel’s act of eating will literally rescue Hansel; Red Riding Hood reclaims sexual agency, declaring, “If that woodsman shows up now, / I will totally kick his ass.”
Full of razors that cut—and razors to cut off shackles: a must. (author’s note, index of first lines, index of photographs) (Poetry. 13-17)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-228957-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
From the cockamamie (extreme ironing) to daredevilry (rooftopping) to a fine day out (catacomb rambling), a taste of...
A hodgepodge of adventuring activities designed for urban settings gathered under the rubric “hacking,” as in the old sense of “play[ing] a sophisticated practical joke on a community,” though considerably more inclusive here.
Place hacking, for author Rosen, comprises three categories of activities: urban exploration, urban adventure and urban infiltration. By its nature, hacking is an outlaw activity, often involving a measure of risk and some illegal acts. There is an unofficial place-hacker code of conduct and an admirable acceptance of personal responsibility for one’s behavior, plus much preparation for the hairier deeds. Still, there are some seriously dangerous exploits recorded in these pages, from entering buildings that may harbor toxic wastes, unstable flooring or creatures unhappy with your visit—skunks, snakes—to scaling the outsides of skyscrapers. But there are also a host of activities that are unlikely to hospitalize or incarcerate the participant, from exploring the urban underground to parkour, a kind of nimble, freestyle run-and-leap through an urban landscape. Despite the disclaimer, “This book...is not intended to be a how-to guide,” there is a segment on staging an illegal exploration—but Rosen emphasizes the pleasure of discovery and the joy of participating in a sport with style and a goal of mastery.
From the cockamamie (extreme ironing) to daredevilry (rooftopping) to a fine day out (catacomb rambling), a taste of unbridled adventure for everyone. (Nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2515-6
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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