The Daring Book for Girls

January 28, 2008
Kadushin, whose lush voice brought the heroine of Stephenie Meyers's Twilight
series to life, does her best to inject some intrigue and mystery into this mile-wide, inch-deep compendium of random facts billed as a “manual for everything that girls need to know,” a selection from the bestselling book. Alas, the audio version, replete with time lines, 14 variations of how to play tag and sesquipedalian vocabulary words, sorely lacks dynamism. The brief histories of famous women—Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Salome—make for more engaging listening than material about how to change a tire or administer first aid. Listeners might find themselves wishing for something akin to the screen selection feature on a DVD, so that if they need information on, say, what constitutes a foul in tetherball, they could get to it without having to wade through the section on women who have earned patents for various inventions. Without such an index, the listener is reduced to writing down the information Kadushin relays, which raises the question: isn't this available in book form? Simultaneous release with the Collins hardcover.