Rating: 
Summary: To get a better idea
Review: I think that the value of any book such as this is comparing it to what else is out there. It is important for parents and their daughters to be aware of the attitudes, studies and ideas that exist in this culture in order for them to formulate their own opinions and move forward in this society. If we only adhere to one form of thought than nothing can be gained--it is only through understanding the different points of view (both positive and negative, good and bad) can barriers finally be broken down and true advancements made. That is why I think that this isn't a book to be dismissed but a book to be used in giving a view of what types of ideas and notions our daughters face in the world today.
Rating: 
Summary: Knowing how we're wired sets us free to be.
Review: I wasn't exactly thrilled to be reading a book called the The Wonder of Girls - especially as it's written by a chap - novelist, poet, neurobiological researcher, psychologist, husband & father of two girls notwithstanding! I was dreading it would be either incomprehensibly technical or a sappy, feel-good read. I should have known better because I had already reviewed Michael Gurian's A Fine Young Man & had found this author to be personable, charmingly thoughtful & invaluably informative.Through research, memories, poems, letters, family moments & professional cases Michael Gurian sets out to inform us Why Girls Are the Way They Are. In his simple, direct & pleasant way he starts at the beginning of the search for A New Logic of Girls' Lives. He presents precisely & calmly that it is time for Feminists to grow up & become Womanists. As an erstwhile rabid Feminist, I have long since outgrown its angst. In Looking Beyond Feminism: Old Myths and New Theories, Michael Gurian catches up to me & explains how Feminism might now be what's keeping us back. Biology, Feminist ideals notwithstanding, still rules supreme & if we don't know how we work, then we don't know why we're doing what we're doing. One vital passage: Girls' Stress Responses needs to be read by everyone: "When a child is under inordinate stress for a prolonged period...her brain development will definitely be affected. She will be "rewired" neurologically...The stress hormone, cortisol,(as well as adrenal and other "lower" brain functions) have dominated brain growth...and this affects normal brain growth patterns." Why then, are we surprised by the depression in all our early adolescent girls? In Part II: What Girls Need, we explore The Artful Mother: What Girls Need from Mom. "There are natural stages to a woman's life, and every daughter wants to know what they are...The womanist philosophy, concerned heavily with the natural stages of a woman's life, is useful...because it is a path to freedom, not social constriction...It is a middle ground between the old view: a woman must stay home - and the feminist view: a woman must conquer the workplace." In this section we think about Providing Childcare; Discipline; Spanking; Teaching Manners; The Importance of Chores; The Beginnings of Spiritual Life; Media Use; Holding Clear Authority; Dealing With Whining; Teaching Your Girls to Enjoy Their Noble Failures; Handling An Angry Girl; Your Daughter's Sadness; Her Pulls to Autonomy; The Issue of Privacy; The Battle Over Clothing; Rites of Passage. There is even a section on How to be an Artful Stepmother! On to The Gifts of The Father: What Girls Need from Dad. A Father's Love "can make or break a girl." Father-Attachment; Our Fatherless Daughters; The Gift of Presence; of Independence; of Adventure and Laughter; of Affection; of Discipline and Self-Restraint; Helping a Daughter Manage Peer Relationships. In Fathers, Daughters, and Divorce we think about the gifts separated fathers can give. Given how many marriages end up in divorce courts - this is a vital segment! In The Stages of "Dad" we watch a hero become a dolt become a mentor! Heady stuff! While we all know of the hero's journey to Self, Michael Gurian explains The Goal of the Journey for girls. While boys are more interested in autonomy & morality, girls are more drawn to identity & intimacy. Ergo The Intimacy Imperative & The Future of Femininity. Knowing how we're wired is half the battle; the other half is sifting through what people think we ought to be & do with our lives. Biology is older than Religion & Feminism by a few millions years & until we truly get that, then we're setting our girls up for a lifelong battle with their inner natural inclinations. Politically correct folks want girls to surmount biology, as if it's a recent discomfort imposed by thoughtless fools - it isn't - it's the biggest thing around! There is so much to think about in The Wonder of Girls that I regret the limitations of a review. I've come away knowing more about why I am than ever before, a profound read indeed! The Wonder of Girls is a book for a lifetime & I heartily recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: social terrorism
Review: Is not Gurian invading the borders of our minds?
Anyone who is trying to tell you,you can do this but cannot
do that is in my mind a social terrorist.
Your mind is the most precious gift you have.
Rating: 
Summary: 328 pages for this!?
Review: Michael Gurian has certainly adhered to the rules for writing pop-psych tomes:
1) Select a common-sense thesis, and tell everyone how terribly revolutionary it is by comparing it to dopey academic theories that have little place outside the educational/psychological marketplace.
2) Take 328 pages to say 328 words (magazine article) worth of material.
3) Mention "the Gurion Institute" ad nauseum.
4) Throw in a teen co-ed slumber party as part of providing "a home that is a place of family fun, healthy peer interaction, and attachment". Save your money, folks. Better to buy some of Gurion's good reference material (this is where he earned those two stars) before he predigests it for you.
Rating:
Summary: Junk, junk, junk
Review: Thank God my parents didn't get ahold of this bullcrap while I was growing up. I shudder to think what would have happened if Gurian's smarmy, saccharine panderings had caused them to steer me away from science (a field I really love and which I am majoring in, but gosh, Mr. Gurian says girls can't do math! Gee, Talking Barbie, math is hard!) The way Mr. Gurian says females think and react is not like any way I ever thought or reacted; rather, a ridiculous, caricatured, throwback parody of our cultural notion of what it is to be female. It's like he's writing about some bizarre alien species to which I have no connection. Do yourself a favor, trash this book and wait for your daughter's intrinsic qualities as an individual human being to make themselves manifest, and make parenting decisions based on that. This book would not have liberated me, if my parents had been privy to such 'advice.' It would have destroyed me. Michael Gurian is potentially a very dangerous man by virtue of the parenting advice he disseminates.
Rating:
Summary: Free at last!
Review: There is not a mysogynistic cell in my entire anatomy, and yet I've never quite been able to accept that 'feminist' dictum of Helen G. Brown and her crowd. Camile Paglia at least makes sense to me, though I really had no hard facts to back up my feelings. Well, Michael Gurian certainly does. This book isn't an attack on feminism in any form; it's a celebration of the the differences between girls and their other primate companions, referred to as boys, males, or sometimss men. We are not the same, and this book explains why without apology; it applauds the female person for her wonder, her specialness, and her many advantages in life, without diminishing her male counterparts in the process. I've watched women all my life, including three daughters who are now out and on their own. That development is a compendium of miracles and unfathomable mysteries to me. How I wish I'd had this book when they were a bit younger, back when they came to me hoping I might understand what I could not at that time. If you have a daughter, buy the book!
Rating:
Summary: Free at last!
Review: There is not a mysogynistic cell in my entire anatomy, and yet I've never quite been able to accept that 'feminist' dictum of Helen G. Brown and her crowd. Camile Paglia at least makes sense to me, though I really had no hard facts to back up my feelings. Well, Michael Gurian certainly does. This book isn't an attack on feminism in any form; it's a celebration of the the differences between girls and their other primate companions, referred to as boys, males, or sometimss men. We are not the same, and this book explains why without apology; it applauds the female person for her wonder, her specialness, and her many advantages in life, without diminishing her male counterparts in the process. I've watched women all my life, including three daughters who are now out and on their own. That development is a compendium of miracles and unfathomable mysteries to me. How I wish I'd had this book when they were a bit younger, back when they came to me hoping I might understand what I could not at that time. If you have a daughter, buy the book!
Rating:
Summary: A giant step backward
Review: This book is a giant step backward for the girls and women in our society. Just in time for women in Afghanistan to be liberated from their veils and from oppressive laws about not working or going to school, Gurian's new book tells us that American girls are not meant to compete with boys, in the workplace or anywhere else. We are told that their essence is their hormones, and that we need to help girls understand the sanctity, and sacrifices, of motherhood. As a father of a daughter, I am appalled that this book exists, much less that it has been garnering so much media attention.
Rating:
Summary: Important book for parents and educators
Review: This book is an important source book for parents and educators
especially as a companion book to "The Wonder of Boys". It is
interesting that the author has two young daughter so that he
speaks not only in theory but in the practical application.
I was especially intrigued how the author weaved the Cinderella
story into the book. A strong book on the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Really bad idea
Review: This book is one long ego trip. The personal anecdotes are smug, and in my opinion, psychologists have no business putting their own poetry into a book about parenting. And another thing - the whole agenda is irresponsible. Women will never attain equality in this society as long as bozos like this author are running around pandering to the biological differences between women and men, advocating their inculcation into children right from birth, and using them to explain why women should be their children's primary caretakers. I don't care how many cool-sounding names of hormones you can cite - you're just not helping.
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