Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. Rachel Simmons

My 8 yr old girl had a period of the whern she suffered severe headache. It was very not charachtaristic of her. I took her to see the family Doctor, with the intention not to get out of his office without a referal to a brain c.t.The smart Doctor looked at her, and started asking her questions about her best friends and social life at school. Later he preffered me to this book.I went home and read it and it opened my eyes I shared it with my wife, and started talking with my daughter, trying to understand more. Aparantly there is a dominant girl in her class, which applies social aggression on all her surrounding. Many other girls were involved but the silence was broken only when more and more parents talked about it. The book was acurate in both the phenomena and how to handle it. This book is an eye opened and a good guide for parents in sla similar situation.

Most informative and of major concern to those dealing with and raising girs in the USA and likely abroad also.

I read this book while doing research on the "not like the other girls" phenomenon and in this sense it's so far one of the best books to explain the dynamics that rise from childhood due to the different socialisation between boys and girls and the imposed regejection for girls of overst anger, aggression, even just assertiveness. Where this books lacks is in the last few chapters dedicated to how parents and educators should behave. The expectation that any amount of empathy from a parent would allow them to police the use of digital technology of their daughter is unrealistic: computer time limited, only in a public room of the house, get their passwords? That is guaranteed to make a girls lie and hide which will go exactly against any help and support a parent can provide for any bullying situation.

Very helpful book. A bit long, but really helped me understand the teenage girl culture. Would love all teachers to read this - although the book helped lower my expectations of how much a teacher can do...

good

good book

This book is a rare find that goes into what makes girl relationships tick, and how it's all played out in school and other contexts.The thing I liked most was it's relevance to the emerging culture of girls who are playing out their lives on line and how parenting them needs special ideas of supporting good choices, even on their texts.The practical part about 3/4 of the way through on decent bullying policies and good wording was a real help to me, together with having at least a place to start with what rules to consider putting in, how to go about it and what to try. Also the quotes from the book are well researched and usable.It is American and waffly and I'd chop 1/3 at least- but the handy bits outweigh this for me.