Perfect Picture Book Friday/ Every Girl Tells a Story

Every Girl Tells A Story

Hi Friends!

 I’ll start with Perfect Picture Book Friday! At first I was going to write about “The Pout Pout Fish” but I think that Julie Hedlund did this story. I found her doing this in both the alphabetical and theme sections of Susanna Hill’s directory so I’ll go to the next one I loved this summer. It is a shame because I really loved “The Pout Pout Fish” so just click on over to it if your heart is set on reading about that book. 

However, my second selection is just as delicious and maybe more so because it is for all girls and is nonfiction and autobiographical. And the photographs are yummy if you can call portraits ‘yummy.’ 🙂

Can you believe summer is over?

If you go back and read what my goals  were for the summer and what I actually accomplished (Last Tuesday’s post) you’ll see what I mean. It’s too long to write about here. This Perfect Picture Book Friday is pretty long in itself. So I’ll dig right in.

My Perfect Picture Book Friday Selection today is “Every girl Tells a Story” –“A Celebration of Girls Speaking Their Minds” by Carolyn Jones in Collaboration with Girl Scouts of the USA. The forward is by First Lady Laura Bush.

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

Forward by: First Lady Laura Bush

Author and Photographer: Carolyn Jones in Collaboration with Girl Scouts of the USA

Publisher: Simon and Schuster books for young readers, 2002, Nonfiction

Appropriate for All ages

Themes: Nonfiction,  STANDING UP FOR ONESELF, SELF-RESPECT,  SELF-CONFIDENCE, SELF-ACCEPTANCE, RESILIENCE,  LEADERSHIP,

So here’s what the jacket said: “Every girl tells a story. Every girl wants to be heard. Listen to these stories. Look into those pictures, and be dazzled by American girls: “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 woman and children. That has always been my dream.” “Working in close collaboration with Girls 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 forward, “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.

Resources: This is a web site that celebrates girls and  has books and kits just for girls. There is everything girl. There are links to RED TENT ceremonies and many other web sites that young girls would want to know about. There are FAQ about all things woman. I think women would be more fascinated with this site than men but men would learn a lot.

I couldn’t find a specific resource about the book but one activity could be for girls to tell their story of empowerment, their dreams, their goals, what made them grateful etc. 

Why I loved it: It is an amazing testament of how great our girls are. How wonderfully free they are to speak their minds in freedom and optimism. I wish all girls in all settings, in all countries could read this and say these things about themselves.

I loved this book and re-read it dwelling in the youthfulness of the pages. Looking at the gorgeous photographs of girls in all their beauty I realized this IS a book for all ages. It gives each age something to treasure. IF a young girl was reading it, she would get dreams out of it. Future dreams. And for me as a grown woman I read hope in the pages. I see our girls and have renewed faith that the world will be better because of them. And it is better because of them.

This book has a different girl on each page. On each page there is a photograph or two of each girl and her dreams. The girl tells what she would like to become when she grows up and what she is most grateful for. Sometimes she tells of events that changed her mind or her life. It is biographical and memoir at the same time.  The photographs are deep and honest. Eyes tell stories not put in words. There is vulnerability in them. I guess it’s their youth that Jones has captured. Actually I think she has captured each girl in her essence.

Please join other bloggers in Perfect Picture Book Friday over at Susanna Leonard Hill’s site to see other fun books. http://susannahill.blogspot.com/p/perfect-picture-books.html

For more links to Perfect Picture Books, a collection of bloggers who contribute at Susanna Leonard Hill’s site, click here.

Or as my friend Joanna  Marple says on her blog on PPBF “Every Friday, authors and Kid Lit bloggers post a favorite picture book.  To see a complete listing of all the Perfect Picture Books with resources, please visit author Susanna Leonard Hill’s Perfect Picture Books. ” 

Have a Greaaat weekend!! XXOO 

Do you think you will read this? Why or why not?

© Clara Bowman-Jahn aka Clarike Bowman-Jahn

Cover of The Pout-Pout Fish

Designed by Juliette Low, the sole emblem of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1912 until 1976 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)