Secret Diary

As Miriam mentioned a few posts back, we’re doing some fun radio interviews with Australia media this week. When we were working on the book, we tried to keep in mind its international audience, and we did include many a factoid concerning things Australian. On one of the radio shows I did today, the host was giving away copies of the book to anyone who could correctly answer these five questions:

1. Name three of the seven positions in netball.
2. Chinese jump rope is known in other countries by the names “American Jump Rope,” “Japanese Jump Rope,” “Norwegian Jump Rope,” and “German Jump Rope.” What name is it called in Australia?
3. What kind of bird is a Mallard?
4. In the 2000 Olympic games, held in Sydney, who was the first Aboriginal woman to earn an individual medal?
5. Jacks, along with marbles, is one of the oldest games in the world. What name does it go by in Australia?

To find the answers to questions 1-4, check out Rules of the Game: Netball, p. 6; Chinese Jump Rope, p. 25; Birdwatching, p. 177; and Women Olympic Firsts, p. 235.

As for the last question — the answer isn’t in the book, but if you’re Australian, you might know it anyway! Send in your best guesses to us at daring @ daringbookforgirls . com!

The Daring Book for Girls meets political cartoonist R.J. Matson, and the result has us laughing out loud. We have been asked, as might be expected given the book’s chapter on Modern Women Leaders, about our thoughts on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s candidacy, and I must say, Matson’s cartoon bests any response we might give!

One serious point, however, has to do with the Power Husbands: Where to Find One/ How to Keep Him quip.

The Daring Book for Girls believes that any woman who runs for office shows a great deal of daring, and we believe that’s true no matter her political party or her platform. We also look forward to the day that a woman can run for president without having been married to a former US President, or a former Senator (we’re thinking here of Elizabeth Dole’s run for president), or to any man with power. That day has got to be coming when a woman doesn’t need a power husband to get in the running for high elected office, and when it does, The Daring Book for Girls is hosting the party to celebrate.

In the meantime, let’s keep showing our daughters that list of Women Leaders, because community and public service are important, and all our girls and our boys need to grow up thinking that the highest posts in the nation might be open to them, too.

Modern Women Leaders, p. 179.

Netball was invented in the United States, but spread quickly to England in the late 1800’s, and from there, throughout the territories controlled by the British Commonwealth. The team has seven players, and each player is assigned specific sectors of the court, which is divided into through. Even more than American basketball, netball is a game of passing. Players cannot dribble the ball, nor run with it in any way.

Rules of the Game: Netball, p. 5.

From the comfort of our own homes, Andi and I have been traveling down under this week. We started a weeklong radio tour with Australian radio stations, and we are having a blast. It’s especially fun because we wrote about netball and because Aussies are crazy over netball, and because Australia’s netball team just won the Word Championships over New Zealand (Sorry, any readers from New Zealand). Netball was one of the many new things I learned about while writing The Daring Book for Girls, and I spent hours watching netball videos on YouTube to figure out the game and make sense of the written instructions. Go Australia!

If you want a book, and haven’t yet been successful at any of the various blog and website give aways, head over to Grant Boyden’s Nightmoves show on Sport 927!

Rules of the Game: Netball,  p.5.

This week, Neatorama features a review of The Daring Book for Girls (thanks, Alex, for the thumbs up, and for calling our book a classic). There’s also an excerpt from our chapter on women scientists, and a free book giveaway, oops, make that twenty free books, so go to Neatorama and leave a comment about memories of childhood fun.