Rating: 
Summary: just another coming of age story
Review: ..albeit a well-written one. You have the absent dad, the "Anywhere But Here" bonding, the tragic illness, the burgeoning sexuality. All the right ingredients for a coming of age story. (Maybe it's harder than I think to expand the blueprint.) The main characters managed to be more than just the stereotypes expected in this kind of book, and there were some great scenes, but overall, I would give it three stars. The TV-movie made a few years ago is worth catching, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Written Book about Sisterhood
Review: After losing her own mother to cancer, Karin Cook writes about the familiar territory of the petrified feelings that arise in a little girl going through puberty and adolescence. Cook clearly depicts the inner lives of girls on the verge of growing up with profound compassion and insight through the eyes of 12-year-old Tilden. Tilden resides with her beautiful but younger sister Elizabeth, and their optimistic mother Frances, who tenderly dishes out comments to her daughters about how much sisterhood matters. When their mother falls amorously in love with a man named Nick, the family is forced to move from the warmer climates of Southern Atlanta to the colder regions of Long Island, New York. After Tilden learns that her mother has a lump in her breast, Tilden has to deal with self-esteem, sexuality, and learn to obtain her own identity, while coping with her mother???s illness. In her first distinguished debut novel What Girls Learn, Karin Cook introduces the proverbial themes of self-discovery, family relationships, and the adversities of growing up without a mother. It becomes hard for Tilden to deal with obtaining her own identity because she has to watch as her younger sister leads the way in experimenting with boys and make up. Having to deal with the frightening reality of growing up and embracing womanhood, Tilden starts to realize the truth about the severity of her mother???s illness and how she could be left alone in the world without her best friend. In What Girls Learn, Karin Cook effectively captures the essence of childhood and family. She demonstrates how love can overcome any dilemmas that a family must face. This satisfying book contains detailed descriptions and is not only beautifully written, but also a fast read. This stunning novel exhibits the truth about the pressures of puberty so profoundly that young readers will definitely be able to relate to the difficulties that go on during this time. It is a great book to read over and over again in order to enjoy moments of sadness and laughter. With the death of the mother, the two sisters become filled with grief and also more wisdom to carry them through life.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive debut, and a tearjerker
Review: I really enjoyed this book, although it almost made me cry. One thing that bothered me was the way Frances was so adamantly against God and prayer, and wanted to keep her daughters away from church. However, as so often is the case, as she got sicker and sicker her views on this did change slightly, and she decided prayer may not be such a bad idea. Hello! Anyway, it was very well written, I thought, and I found it to be quite a page-turner. I would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Memory is the best ending!
Review: I think that the last chapter, Memory, is the best ending for the book because it ties in all the information given throughout the novel. It tells of how Tilden and Elizabeth have continued life and learned to live without their mother. If the book only ended with Procession, I think that it would have given the tone of the book a false sense of completion. By ending with Procession, Tilden and Elizabeth are happy, but the harsh effects of thier mother's death have not seemed to hit them yet. Memory provides the more realistic view of life without a mom, showing how Tilden has to face the depressing fact that Mama will not be home after school, will not be there to help her pick out clothes for a dance, and will not teach her how to put on makeup, and this emptiness will not be filled for the rest of her life. Life without a mother is very hard, and this harshness is not portrayed through the light and airy tone of Procession. Deaths of loved ones are not forgotten overnight, and I think that Procession is too lighthearted to express the lifelong emptiness that Tilden will feel in her heart because of the loss of her mother. Even though Memory is rather depressing, I think that it honestly shows the reality of the day to day questioning, pain and heartache that Tilden has to go through. She tells how she misses Mama, how she keeps a list of questions that other girls seem to know without even having to ask, simply because they have a mom. Tilden feels empty without her mother's love and teaching, and by ending with Memory, her pain and grief are realistically portrayed. Though she is still going through a lot of pain and questioning because of Mama's death, she reflects back, knowing that the memory of Mama was shaping her every word and action. Tilden misses her mom very much, and this reality is shown in Memory, making it the best ending for the book.
Rating:
Summary: Memory is the fitting ending to the book What Girls Learn!
Review: In my opinion I find the chapter, Memory, to conclude the book the most efficiantly. The pages consist of Tilden telling us how life is after everything is said and done. She expresses to the reader what life is like without a mother and all of her triumphs and failures. I feel as if it gives more closure than Procession did. In Memory, Tilden expresses how hard it has been without Mamma and at the same time allows us to see the impact Mamma had on her, while she was alive. In the real world death happens, and in the story, Mamma died, it's life. People just don't forget about that over night. Loosing someone close to you will be with you for your entire life. I know this is true from personal experience. Maybe it is for that reason that I feel a special connection with Memory, that possibly being why I feel it to be the most realistic and appropriate ending. I feel as if what Tilden expresses in the last few pages are true to life. Tilden tells us how life has been, and how life goes on. When you loose someone life will be hard and you will go through many of the same feelings and experiences as Tilden did. You can't just expect to get over an event like that overnight. I feel that if the book had ended at Procession,that sense of closure would have been missing. The reader would not know how Elizabeth and Tilden dealt with the death of their mother in the future, and if they had started to sucessfully moved on. The fact that Tilden expresses what she is going through presently and acknowldeges the fact that she has not forgotten Mamma, is closure enough for me. I believe the key to Memory's ending success was it's trueness to life and continuation to the present/future, that helps the reader know what happened AFTER it all, allowing for the reader to let go to the full and final extent.
Rating:
Summary: Procession is a better ending
Review: Karin Cook provides the reader two different resolutions for the novel, "What Girls Learn." In my opinion, I believe the chapter, "Procession" is the proper resolution through many reasons. The tone in "Procession" presents a more optimistic view for the girls as they must learn to live their lives without their mother. In the begining of the novel, Tilden, Elizabeth, and Frances are shown as a family in a car traveling along on the road heading to the next destination in their lives. At the end of the novel, Tilden and Elizabeth are shown in the car with their cremated mother traveling. This can be seen as the resolution in the part in the girls' lives. Tilden is now acting and taking Frances job as the "mother" as she is about to take responsibility in taking care of Elizabeth. In "Procession", Karin Cook ends the chapter with more closure and provides the end with a feeling of hope for the girls. In my opinion, "In Memory" shows the girls moving back in time and does not provide a satisfying ending for the reader. The chapter is depressing as it gives a slap of reality. Usually, a reader wants to be comforted with a positive ending for a family that is suffering, thus, "Procession" is the better ending for the novel. In "Procession" the girls are able to give the readers an emotional good-bye to their mother.
Rating:
Summary: just another coming of age story
Review: Karin Cook's "What Girls Learn" is one of those novels that pulls you into its story instantly. From the first page, you are intrigued by its protagonist and supporting cast, and you want to read on and on to know what's going to become of them - preferably all in one sitting.The story's protagonist and narrator is Tilden, an intelligent and insightful girl. Upon first reading the book I missed Tilden's age at first and was sure we were hearing the narration of a seventeen (or so) year old - or even an adult in a flashback, perhaps - but the more I read, the more references I saw to the fact that she was much younger (i.e. the fact that all the girls in her class have to watch a movie about menstruation, etc.). Tilden and her younger (by a year) sister, Elizabeth - also a memorable character - are two of the four main characters in the book. The others are their mother, Frances (a.k.a. "Mama"), and her new boyfriend and eventual husband, Nick, to whose home she moves the girls at the beginning of the story. The well-written story is often wrenchingly painful and even a bit disturbing to read, as it deals not only with the girls' mother's battle with cancer but also with other unhappy issues (i.e. preteen sex; a predatory uncle) throughout. Still, it is such a gripping story that it makes reading it all worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: A probable tearjerker
Review: Karin Cook's "What Girls Learn" is one of those novels that pulls you into its story instantly. From the first page, you are intrigued by its protagonist and supporting cast, and you want to read on and on to know what's going to become of them - preferably all in one sitting. The story's protagonist and narrator is Tilden, an intelligent and insightful girl. Upon first reading the book I missed Tilden's age at first and was sure we were hearing the narration of a seventeen (or so) year old - or even an adult in a flashback, perhaps - but the more I read, the more references I saw to the fact that she was much younger (i.e. the fact that all the girls in her class have to watch a movie about menstruation, etc.). Tilden and her younger (by a year) sister, Elizabeth - also a memorable character - are two of the four main characters in the book. The others are their mother, Frances (a.k.a. "Mama"), and her new boyfriend and eventual husband, Nick, to whose home she moves the girls at the beginning of the story. The well-written story is often wrenchingly painful and even a bit disturbing to read, as it deals not only with the girls' mother's battle with cancer but also with other unhappy issues (i.e. preteen sex; a predatory uncle) throughout. Still, it is such a gripping story that it makes reading it all worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissappointed
Review: The book, What Girls Learn, by Karin Cook, describes how the life of two young Southern girls changes when their vivacious mother moves in with a business-minded man from the North. Tilden, and her younger sister Elizabeth, become wrapped up in hard times when they find out their beloved mother has breast cancer. Throughout the novel, both of the girls try to gain their mother's approval. The way the mother, Frances, is portrayed reflects the way most cancer patients feel and act from the emotional and physical difficulties of such a hard illness. One thing I thought unnecessary in the novel was the uncle's character. He had a lasting effect on Tilden, but all he did was lose the respect of a twelve-year-old. There was nothing symbolic about his character. Through the whole book there were many choppy paragraphs and lulls in the story. Although the novel was narrated by Tilden, there were no strong, dominant characters. The story-line was a good idea, but the novel itself needed much more work and thought put into it. The emotional quota was mediocre and the ending was not clear. This novel was a dissapointment, and it needed much more emotion and drama than it contained.
Rating:
Summary: The True Ending for What Girls Learn
Review: The real ending for What Girls Learn is the chapter titled "Procession". In my mind, the ending for a novel has to bring closure to the story and within the reader. It should have a final resolution to the protagonist's conflict, while, at the same time, leave some mystery for the reader to decide what is to happen in the future. Procession does a great job of implying that Tilden and Elizabeth will eventually deal with their mother's death if they haven't already. The ending scene with Tilden in the driver's seat, the mother in the middle and Elizabeth on the other side, as they return to their home, answers more questions then it seems to. It shows that Tilden has grown up, since she's driving, and that she must now take on the responsibility of being the oldest, now that her mother has passed away. Also, I like that it ends with "the three" of them still together in their car just like the beginning of the novel. Also, as most Americans would want, it gives a sense of hope by stating that there was "an airy, open feeling of potential". The reader feels like all isn't lost for these two girls who have undergone so much in the past year. It's hope that there are better times to come for them. The mystery part of the resolution lies within that hope. The reader doesn't know what will happen exactly, but can sense a positive result. As for Memory, it could be a ending in an epilogue, if there were one in this novel. It's more in the future and doesn't leave any mystery. It's fact and not very hopeful. It almost feels as if the novel is going backwards again because a sense of hope is introduced in Procession and then Memory brings back all the sadness and pain of Mama's death. The reader doesn't feel like there is any closure and instead is left with an empty and sad feeling for the girls and their future.
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