BOOK TOUR STOP: It's a Girl edited by Andi Buchanan
It's virtual book tour time! And again we are pleased to bring you IT'S A GIRL by Andi Buchanan. Or more accurately edited by Andi-- as it is a collection of essays written by mothers of daughters pre and post birth.I was enamored and fascinated with the book at first glance--because it was about girls. Little baby girls. Grown up girls. Mothering girls. Planning for mothering girls. And dealing with girls. And I have a son.
Being a boy mamma--I had no experience to draw from. Well, other than the friends with daughters. and being of the daughter-mind myself--the rest is a mystery. A wonderfully complicated and fresh mystery that one day I might get to experience with a future child. But for now, it's all foreign and misty and totally new. And this book explains IT ALL.
The girlie girls, the moodiness, shrieking, tiaras, tomboys, menstruation, self-image, dread, hope, passing on (or not) of the family name, confidence and all things daughter. ALL THINGS that, as a daughter I thought myself. Even the things I hope NOT to pass to any future daughter (and this theme of passing on or not... also evident in the essays).
As typical of any of Andi's books, I could blather on like an idiot. But this time, I won't. It wouldn't do it justice. So here's the official blurb:
And of course you can read the introduction here.It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters
The most popular question any pregnant woman is asked--aside from "When are you due?"-- has got to be "Are you having a girl or a boy?" When author Andrea Buchanan was pregnant with her daughter, she was thrilled to be expecting a girl. Some people were happy for her, with shared visions of flouncy pink dresses and promises of mother-daughter bonding to come. Other people, though, were concerned: "Is your husband OK with that?" "You can try again." "Girls are tough." This mixed message led her to explore the issue herself, with help from her fellow mother-writers, many of whom had had the same experience.The result is It's a Girl: Women Writers on Raising Daughters, a wide-ranging, humorous, honest, and poignant collection of essays on the experience of mothering daughters. As she did in It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons, Buchanan and her contributors take on what it's really like to raise a child--in this case, a girl--from babyhood to adulthood with essays on everything from "princess power" ("Shining, Shimmering, Splendid"), adding a girl to a brood of boys ("Confessions of a Tomboy Mom"), dealing with a daughter's eating disorder ("The Food Rules"), and mothering "hardcore mini-feminists" ("Tough Girls").
Edited by Andrea J. Buchanan
Seal Press, April 2006; $14.95
Contributors include Carolyn Alessio, Barbara Card Atkinson, Jenny Block, Amy Bloom, Gayle Brandeis, Martha Brockenbrough, Andrea Buchanan, Ann Douglas, Leslie Fields, Kim Fischer, Gwendolen Gross, Jessica Berger Gross, Rachel Hall, Kelly Harrington Johnson, Suzanne Kamata, Yvonne Latty, Jennifer Lauck, Jody Mace, Jennifer Margulis, Joyce Maynard, Jacqueline Mitchard, Vicky Mlyniec, Catherine Newman, Miriam Peskowitz, Jill Siler, Gabrielle Smith-Dluha, Rebecca Steinitz, Emily Strong, Shari MacDonald Strong, and Katharine Weber.
Do I still want to parent a daughter? Maybe someday. At least I know I'll have women to share in all the joy, euphoria, contemplation, and struggles.
