Book Report

'Queenbees & wannabes : helping your daughter survive cliques, gossip, boyfriends, and other realities of adolescence' by Rosalind Wiseman

This is what I'm reading right now. I read a review of it when it was first published a few years ago, and was interested in reading it, although I don't have a teenaged daughter (yet). I made it through my own adolescent years (mostly) unscarred, but the memories and sometimes pain of those tumultuous years are still vivid enough that I wanted to see what Ms. Wiseman had to say about the whole thing.

So far, it's a good read. She breaks down the social hierarchy of girl cliques and presents Teen Angst from a different perspective. Teen Angst might seem trivial and selfish to adults, but if you actually *are* a teen girl, it's a whole different ballpark. The movie "Mean Girls" is so true; there is nothing nastier than an adolescent girl, and the so-called "best years of your life" can be incredibly lonely if you're on the wrong side of the cool crowd. It hasn't really been THAT long since I was a teenager, so believe me when I say that while it might seem like teenagers want to disown their totally uncool parents, this is the time when they need them the most.

Read the book if you have a teen or preteen girl and want to help her through the awkward stage of leaving childhood behind and becoming a woman.

Read the book if your kids are grown already, but that part of raising them still seems such a mystery.

Read it if you were the victim of the Mean Girl. It won't change the past, but it might soften your feelings if you know the motivation behind the cruelty.

Even if you don't have girls, read it to gain insight into Girl World and what makes girls tick.