About The Double-Daring Book for Girls
Not often in history have
girls and women been encouraged to be daring. It’s a remarkable word, daring: old-fashioned and forward-looking all at the same time. With all the rules we’re given about what girls should and shouldn’t do, a little daring can go a long way.
As we learned in the original Daring Book for Girls, daring comes in many flavors. It can mean seeking adventure and being bold when bold is called for. It can mean being confident and brave and saying yes to the good risks that life brings your way. It is true that some daring happens on a grand scale, such as rafting down a raging river, surfing monster waves, saving lives, or traveling on a worldwide expedition. But everyday daring, courage, and bravery are no less important, whether it’s trying something new, sticking up for someone who is being teased, or taking a small chance that winds up making a big difference.
When we put together The Double-Daring Book for Girls, we discovered daring girls and women everywhere we looked. Cowgirls who dared to ride horses and rope cattle. Bicycle-riding women who traded their Victorian hoopskirts for bloomers at a time when women weren’t allowed to wear pants. Women and girls who risked their lives escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad—and who then, daringly, helped others escape, too. Women who looked to the skies and discovered the secrets of the universe, and daring girls who became musicians and scientists and leaders when no one thought women should do these things.
In addition to inspiring stories like these, The Double-Daring Book for Girls is bursting with crafts and games, sports and knowledge, and facts about the world. In these pages, girls can discover everything from how to make an electric buzzer game to how to create lightning in your mouth; from car camping and star gazing to turning your backyard into a farm; from making your own piñata out of papier-mâché to creating your own fun at slumber parties. Daring girls can learn to run a magazine or paint a room, run off and join the circus, or put on a show. With chapters on scoubidou braiding, dream catchers, card games, and even a whole chapter of stuff to do when you’re bored, no girl will ever be at a loss for things to do.
Daring is all around us. It is in girls who break barriers and girls who help out friends. It is in girls who scale mountains and girls who speak their minds. It is in girls who make things and girls who ask questions, girls who set their sights on adventure and girls who find adventure in their own backyards. Daring is about finding your journey and following your dreams—getting off the sidelines and getting in the game, whatever your game may be.
So fire up your inner daring, turn the page, and remember the daring girl credo: Enjoy yourself, learn new things, and lead an interesting life.
Go on—we double-dare you!
—Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz
ANDREA J. BUCHANAN is the mother of a girl and a boy, both of whom are equally daring. She is the author of several books, including Mother Shock. Before she was a writer, she was a pianist who once performed a solo concert at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Visit Andi on the web at www.andibuchanan.com.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | viii |
| Stargazing | 1 |
| Constellations | 3 |
| Notable Women I: Astronomers | 7 |
| Rock Towers | 9 |
| Lacrosse | 10 |
| Hula-Hoops | 15 |
| The Greek Alphabet | 17 |
| How to Conduct an Orchestra | 18 |
| A Short History of the Bicycle | 20 |
| Picnic Games | 23 |
| Paper Cup Candles | 26 |
| Tic-Tac-Toe Around the World | 29 |
| Collective Nouns About Animals | 31 |
| Card Games | 32 |
| Scrabble Words | 34 |
| Fun Things to Do with Paper | 36 |
| Cowgirls | 43 |
| How to Dye Your Hair Using Kool-Aid | 48 |
| Make a Decoupage Bowl | 49 |
| Dangerous Volcanoes | 51 |
| Tennis | 53 |
| Make a Lava Lamp | 57 |
| Labyrinths | 58 |
| Turning Your Backyard into a Farm | 60 |
| Courage | 63 |
| Sundials | 64 |
| The Chinese New Year | 66 |
| Notable Women II : Dancers | 70 |
| Cricket | 72 |
| Lightning | 75 |
| How to Waltz | 78 |
| Furoshiki | 80 |
| The Double-Daring Girl’s Guide to Getting Out of Trouble | 83 |
| Japanese Tea Ceremony | 84 |
| Friendship | 87 |
| Football | 89 |
| How to Throw—and Catch—a Football | 92 |
| Car Camping | 93 |
| Tying a Sarong | 98 |
| Batik | 99 |
| Sand Castles | 101 |
| Months and Days | 103 |
| How to Catch Fish | 107 |
| Notable Women III : Math and Science | 109 |
| Make a Piñata from Papier Mâché | 114 |
| Slumber Party Games | 117 |
| The Nobel Prize | 118 |
| Pogo Sticks | 120 |
| How to Run Away and Join the Circus | 121 |
| How to Make a Rope Ladder | 124 |
| Scoubidou | 126 |
| The Underground Railroad | 131 |
| Dreams and Their Meanings | 135 |
| Dream Journal | 138 |
| Dream Catchers | 139 |
| Commonly Confused Words | 141 |
| How to Make a Scarecrow | 142 |
| The Moon and Moon Lore | 144 |
| Make a Snow Globe | 149 |
| Phrases and Idioms and Their Origins | 150 |
| How to Become President of the United States of America | 153 |
| Quilling | 158 |
| Playing the Harmonica | 161 |
| Horses | 162 |
| Sailing Phrases | 164 |
| Worry Dolls | 167 |
| Measurements | 169 |
| Electric Buzzer Game | 174 |
| Being a Private Eye | 177 |
| How to Play Croquet | 178 |
| Surfing | 182 |
| Notable Women IV: Eleanor of Aquitaine | 186 |
| Stepping Stones | 189 |
| How to Say No / How to Say Yes | 190 |
| Dancing the Cotton-Eyed Joe | 192 |
| Shooting Pool | 194 |
| Math Tricks | 198 |
| Words to Impress | 199 |
| How to Paint a Room | 201 |
| Running a Magazine | 204 |
| How to Build a Raft | 207 |
| April Fools’ Day | 210 |
| Dominoes | 213 |
| How to Practice Anything | 215 |
| Calamity Jane | 217 |
| What to Do When You’re Bored | 219 |
| Charades | 222 |
| Yo-Yos | 224 |
| Rhetoric | 227 |
| Bocce, Horseshoes, Shuffleboard, Lawn Bowling, and Quoits | 230 |
| How to Organize a Tournament | 234 |
| Notable Women V: Arts and Letters | 235 |
| Whittling | 240 |
| Putting on a Show | 242 |
| How to Say Hello, Good-bye, and Thank You Around the World | 246 |
| Swimming | 250 |
| Practical Life | 253 |
| Calligraphy | 256 |
| Making Antique Paper | 261 |
| How to Debate | 262 |
| The Long and Short of It | 264 |
| Windowsill Garden | 266 |
| Optical Illusions | 268 |
| How to Start a Mother-Daughter Book Club | 271 |
