Every Girl Tells a Story: A Celebration of Girls Speaking Their Minds

by Girl Scouts of the USA, Carolyn Jones (Photographer)

Every girl tells a story. Every girl wants to be heard. Listen to these stories, look into these pictures, and be dazzled by American "If your heart's in it, you'll keep going. Girls can do anything. Girls rule." "The best thing my parents have done for me is to show me that it's okay to be myself." "I'd like to open a clinic for women and children. That has always been my dream." Working in close collaboration with Girl Scouts of the USA, documentary photographer Carolyn Jones has captured in words and pictures a lasting portrait of eighty-five American girls -- the girls who are our future. As First Lady Laura Bush says in her foreword, "My hope for every girl, everywhere, is that she, too, will find her voice and achieve her dreams." This is a book for women of all ages, who will recognize the girls they once were and still can be. It is a book for fathers and mothers, who hear -- but may not always listen to -- what their daughters are saying. But most of all it is a book for girls, who will find themselves reflected in this joyous celebration of their complexity, depth, honesty, and glorious, soaring optimism.

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Pam Cain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fewer girl scouts than I thought but wow ther eare some impressive young women in our world

[Thea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational; I think all teens should read this.

[sarafem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big believer in Girl Scouting and I am always looking out for books about strong and outspoken girls, so I snatched up this book when I saw it at the library. In it, 30 or 40 girls tell their stories - some are about personal events that made them stronger, some are about girls and their passions, some are about community service and being proactive in the community, some are about how these girls define themselves.

All in all, it's a good collection and I would like to own a copy for my daughter as well as for my students. My main problem with it is that some of these girls were too self-congratulatory. Maybe that is not a fair assessment, given that just about every adolescent thinks they are the center of the universe, and these girls at least had a better perspective than that. But it did get old; maybe I would have found it less taxing if it had a few less stories (some made me feel like I'd already read her story at least once), or even if it had more stories but were broken into volumes (self-defining, personal events, community service, passions, etc.).

Another thing I didn't like was that at times it seemed like an advertisement for Girl Scouting. Don't get me wrong, I love the organization; but on the other hand it is not for every girl and I hardly think it was scouting that built these girls' character - these girls have character enough to start with and scouting was the vehicle available to them to serve their purposes and interests. It is not for everyone; my daughter is not a Girl Scout and I know a lot of other families that have removed their girls from it. It made you feel at times like it was saying you have to become a Girl Scout to become a better person. More importantly, promoting character in young women should be more important than beefing up membership in your organization.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. So-so, not really thrilling.