100 Books for Girls to Grow On

June 1, 1999
In this companion to The Mother-Daughter Book Club (HarperCollins, 1997), Dodson provides annotations for books she believes will be successful in that forum. She also presents information about the authors, discussion questions, and ideas for crafts and field trips. Bibliographic citations and reading levels are not included. The annotations frequently convey more of Dodsons personal insights than facts about the books, and upon occasion miss the mark. For example, when discussing Philip Pullmans The Golden Compass, the author states: I was really intrigued by the whole concept of daemons, which seem to serve a similar function as blankies or stuffed animals. The fact that children are rendered spectrelike after the removal of their daemons would seem to contradict this conclusion. Other inconsistencies that mar the book are suggestions that 9- to 12-year-old girls watch the graphic film Amistad but wait until they are older to see Mutiny on the Bounty, and that children who are ready to tackle Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird will also enjoy painting pumpkins. Fans of the first book may take to this presentation, but Kathleen Odeans Great Books for Girls (Ballantine, 1997) and Alison Cooper-Mullins Once upon a Heroine (Contemporary Bks., 1998) provide a greater range of titles and more succinct annotations.Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ

Copyright 1999 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.