In our recent post on talking to Australian media about The Daring Book For Girls, we asked folks to send us their best guesses for the answer to the following question:
Jacks, along with marbles, is one of the oldest games in the world. What name does it go by in Australia?
And now we can reveal the answer! In Australia, the game is called Knucklebones — because originally it was played with the knucklebones of a sheep.
The old weather saying “Clear moon, frost soon” is actually grounded in science?
When the moon sits in a clear, cloudless sky, lore has it that frost is on its way. The weather science behind the saying explains that in a clear atmosphere, with no clouds to keep the heat on earth from radiating into space, a low-temperature night without wind encourages the formation of frost.
Weather Signs, p. 62
We’re trying to keep up with the contests, and here’s another. Naturemoms.com is offering a book in return for a few words about who you would give this book to, and why. Deadline is December 3d, so head on over.
Join us over at Gather.com this Thursday, November 29, at 7 pm, for a live chat!
This Thursday night, at 7 pm EST, we’ll be talking with Chris Carlisle and answering questions over at the Gather Essentials Book Group. Hope to see you there! In the meantime, check out our other features on Gather: Introducing the Daring Book for Girls, The Daring Girls Guide to Danger, On Being Daring, and our Daring Girls homepage on Gather.
One of our favorite reviews so far comes from a nine-year-old girl, who, with the help of her parents, reviews the book over at HipMama. We love her enthusiasm for the book, and we love how clearly she knows what being daring is all about! She writes:
So far, my favorite section has been on tetherball. Tetherball was something that I did not know about before I read this book. I read about it and it sounded interesting but I wasn’t sure if I would like it. Then I had a chance to play it at school for the first time and found that I really liked it. I think the book helped me because thanks to it, I knew some of the rules before I played, such as not touching the rope or the pole. This helped make me more confident the first time I played, and I think you have to have confidence to be daring.
Absolutely! We also loved her idea about bowling at home:
Just this afternoon I found a section on bowling. Bowling is one of my favorite activities and I can’t wait to read this part. It explains scoring and has a glossary of bowling terms that I didn’t know about. I keep asking Mom and Dad to take me bowling but they are always doing stuff so I am going to take some empty water bottles and a ball outside and create my own bowling game when I’m done working on this review.
It is really wonderful to hear about real girls’ reactions to and interactions with the book — using the book as a jumping-off point for real-life creativity, inspiration, and confidence is what it’s all about!