Girls Against Girls by Bonnie Burton

One of my young Middle School girls was having some “issues” with her friends. Because she frequently visits the library in the after school hours and her mother stops in to pick her up, I was able to introduce the book Girls Against Girls to her mother and recommend that mother and daughter spend time reading the book together. Bonnie Burton’s approach to the “mean girl” syndrome is insightful, interesting, and quite practical. As I read the book I could identify many incidences from my young life that Burton plays out in her book. The good news is that Burton gives answers to those dilemmas that truly make sense. One cool thing in the book is that Burton also features women from pop culture that put a twist or spin on a certain situation Some of those contributing include Jane Weidlin, founding member of the Go-Go's; Jenny Conlee, band member of The Decemberists; and Tegan, band member of Tegan and Sara.

This book is attractive, pleasing to girls of today, and packs powerful information and ideas into easy to read text. Sometimes self-help books for teens are boring or “preachy.” Burton’s book is down-to-earth and real, which today’s girl will appreciate. This book would be great for mothers and daughters to read together.

Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel

Jeannette Walls' first book, The Glass Castle, was a remarkable true story about growing up in poverty with an alcoholic father and an eccentric mother. Half-Broke Horses is her newest book and tells the story of her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. When the story opens, the family lives in a sod house on the prairie, and Lily saves her brother and sister from a flash flood. Lily grows up to become a strong young woman, and at fifteen rides a horse for a month to reach a frontier town where she has been offered a job teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. Lily later marries and becomes a rancher's wife and eventually gives birth to Jeannette's mother Rosemary. Jeannette Walls truly has a gift for writing. When you read the book, you feel as though you are on the prairie during the flood or on the ranch breaking horses. We think of ourselves as independent women today, but this book will give you a renewed admiration for those pioneer women who raised their families as they settled this land. Don't miss this book!