A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Troubles is a book by Patti Kelley Criswell for young girls dealing with those inevitable teenage friendship issues that come with getting older. This book touches on topics like navigating fights with friends, bullying, and the feeling of being left out. The book has great tips and interactive quizzes which I can remember loving as a young girl. It also has excerpts written from the perspective of a teenage girl about how she dealt with a specific issue.
I like the way this book is written. It is written more like notes in a notebook or a magazine and less like an actual chapter book. I also like that is gives examples of how "real" girls have dealt with a problem. I think that it gives a model of how young girls can navigate through some really sticky situations.
In my classroom I would be able to use this book with the girls and create a book club where they can talk about these problems and maybe help each other as well. I have seen many girls in my 5th grade class that could benefit from a book like this. There are many social aspects in a school environment that are not taught directly in the classroom. I think that a book like this can be used to help bring those aspects to light to help young girls learn how to interact with peers appropriately.
I would also like to have this book in my classroom library because although I am a teacher and a woman I only have boys at home. Many of the aspects of navigating through this developmental period have long been forgotten and since I do not deal with these issues as a mother the concepts and issues seem foreign to me. I think that a book like this can help me to help mentor the girls in my classroom.
I really like your idea about having this book as a book club book. There are probably things that girls can relate to in the story, so it would probably be helpful. I also like your idea about having it in the classroom library. This would give students time to read it on their own time.
ReplyDelete