What do you think?
Rate this book
How To Say It (R) To Girls: Communicating with Your Growing Daughter
The expert guide to girl talk.
How to Say It(r) to Girls provides a wellspring of practical advice for parents on how to broach uncomfortable subjects with girls of all ages, or how to simply open the lines of communication. This book offers concrete words, phrases, and sample dialogues to help parents figure out what to say and how best to say it.
How to Say It(r) to Girls provides a wellspring of practical advice for parents on how to broach uncomfortable subjects with girls of all ages, or how to simply open the lines of communication. This book offers concrete words, phrases, and sample dialogues to help parents figure out what to say and how best to say it.
- GenresParenting
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2004
5 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 26, 2019
Great compendium of all manner of issues that can come up for girls of any age, I like the frank and creative dialog snippets plus the age-appropriate tips provided along with additional resources in case follow-up research is necessary. Originally published in 2004, the section on Telephones and Pagers is outdated, but the other 87 are as timely as they are timeless. I'm a huge fan of the author, Nancy Gruver, and the magazine that she founded: New Moon Girls.
March 30, 2011
I can't say enough about this book. In a world that beats down the confidence and self-image of girls, my husband and I find this book to be helpful in guiding us as we communicate with our daughter.
August 1, 2023
I don't remember how this book came into my library, but I've slowly made my way through it, sometimes skipping to a chapter that held particular relevance at a specific time in my parenting of my now almost 13-year old daughter.
Written by Nancy Gruver, founder of New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams, Gruver offers 88 short (2 - 3 page long) chapters addressing a wide variety of issues that are likely to come up when raising a girl. She arranges them alphabetically, and they include topics such as: Adventure, Anger, Body Image, Boundaries, Courage, Critical Thinking, Death, Disagreements, Drinking Drugs and Smoking, Failure, Friends, Girl Groups, Healthy Touch, Internet, Money, Peer Pressure, Perfectionism, Popularity, Pornography, Prejudice, Privacy and Secrets, Sexuality, Sports and Physical Activity, Stress, Traditions, Violence, Volunteerism, Women's History and Role Models, Women's Rights, and Work and Careers.
In each chapter, Gruver begins with a few introductory paragraphs where she introduces the topic and offers some general advice. This is followed by a section entitled "What to Say and Do" where she presents age-appropriate ways to address the issue with your daugher: 1 - 7 years old; 8 - 13 years old; and 14 and up. This is followed by suggested "Words and Phrases to Use" and "What Not To Say and DO" and "Words and Phrases To Avoid." Finally, each chapter ends with a "Resource" list for deeper follow up if that issue is of particular relevance.
As an example of a chapter that my daughter's mother and I made us of is that on "Money." After all, money management is an important skill and most of us have to figure it out all on our own. My folks never sat me down for a talk about finances but, as Gruver writes: "Living within our means and making active choices about how to do that is the most useful thing we can teach her about managing money." After reading this chapter, instead of giving our daughter an allowance, she gets a "budget" each month from which she has to set aside money for the upkeep of her pet rats and snake which are pets she wanted. The family dog and cats expenses are taken care of my us adults. From her budget she also gets to choose what clothes or other items she'd like other than the necessities we take care of. Since we've begun doing this, she has learned the benefit of delayed gratification as well as in consciously discerning between needs and wants.
My main caveat about this book is that published in 2004, some of the chapters are already a bit dated (remember pagers?). And while Gruver most obviously writes from a more liberal, feminist perspective, there are a few instances where I found her a bit conservative for my taste, but ultimately that's a small quibble. I found it a good overall resource and I'll be keeping it on my shelf for times when any of these issues may arise in the upcoming teen years!
Written by Nancy Gruver, founder of New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams, Gruver offers 88 short (2 - 3 page long) chapters addressing a wide variety of issues that are likely to come up when raising a girl. She arranges them alphabetically, and they include topics such as: Adventure, Anger, Body Image, Boundaries, Courage, Critical Thinking, Death, Disagreements, Drinking Drugs and Smoking, Failure, Friends, Girl Groups, Healthy Touch, Internet, Money, Peer Pressure, Perfectionism, Popularity, Pornography, Prejudice, Privacy and Secrets, Sexuality, Sports and Physical Activity, Stress, Traditions, Violence, Volunteerism, Women's History and Role Models, Women's Rights, and Work and Careers.
In each chapter, Gruver begins with a few introductory paragraphs where she introduces the topic and offers some general advice. This is followed by a section entitled "What to Say and Do" where she presents age-appropriate ways to address the issue with your daugher: 1 - 7 years old; 8 - 13 years old; and 14 and up. This is followed by suggested "Words and Phrases to Use" and "What Not To Say and DO" and "Words and Phrases To Avoid." Finally, each chapter ends with a "Resource" list for deeper follow up if that issue is of particular relevance.
As an example of a chapter that my daughter's mother and I made us of is that on "Money." After all, money management is an important skill and most of us have to figure it out all on our own. My folks never sat me down for a talk about finances but, as Gruver writes: "Living within our means and making active choices about how to do that is the most useful thing we can teach her about managing money." After reading this chapter, instead of giving our daughter an allowance, she gets a "budget" each month from which she has to set aside money for the upkeep of her pet rats and snake which are pets she wanted. The family dog and cats expenses are taken care of my us adults. From her budget she also gets to choose what clothes or other items she'd like other than the necessities we take care of. Since we've begun doing this, she has learned the benefit of delayed gratification as well as in consciously discerning between needs and wants.
My main caveat about this book is that published in 2004, some of the chapters are already a bit dated (remember pagers?). And while Gruver most obviously writes from a more liberal, feminist perspective, there are a few instances where I found her a bit conservative for my taste, but ultimately that's a small quibble. I found it a good overall resource and I'll be keeping it on my shelf for times when any of these issues may arise in the upcoming teen years!
May 21, 2021
This was an easy read and well organized with a large variety of topics. I picked this up at a library book sale and figured I'd better take a look at it before my girls were fully grown. I didn't agree with all of the advice, but I can see that the author was trying to keep it general for all audiences.
May 17, 2010
Very insightful and the book breaks it down into age groups
June 14, 2011
Haven't ACTUALLY read it, but I know anything by Nancy Gruver is great. :D
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews