After the mold stops dripping, flip the screen paper-side down onto your felt, flannel, or other blotting material. Press out any moisture with the sponge and then carefully lift the mold, leaving the wet sheet of paper on the fabric. Use your hands to press out bubbles or other slight imperfections.
Place another piece of blotting material on top of the paper and use a rolling pin to squeeze out the moisture. Now your handmade sheet of paper needs to dry. Find a good spot and let it sit for a few hours. You can also use an iron (on a medium setting) to encourage the drying process; just make sure to iron the paper through the blotting material, not directly on the paper itself. When the paper is fully dry, carefully remove the top cloth and then peel off the paper. Now you are all set to begin using your handmade paper for whatever you desire.
Books That Will Change Your Life
WE PRESENT these titles for your reading pleasure, knowing there are endless books beyond this list to discover and love, too. We know you will read them in your own fashion and at your own pace.
20 GIRL CLASSICS
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, and her other books too.
Anne of Green Gables (and Emily of New Moon) by L.M. Montgomery
Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Caddie Woodlawn (and the sequel, Magical Melons) by Carol Ryrie Brink
Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White
The Famous Five, a series by Enid Blyton, with Dick, Ann, Julian, George (a girl!), and her dog Timothy.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
The Illyrian Adventure series by Lloyd Alexander
The Little Princess (and The Secret Garden) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Keep Climbing, Girls by Beah H. Richards
Little Women and Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder—the entire series.
Lizzie Bright (and The Buckminster Boy) by Gary Schmidt
Mandy by Julie Andrews
Matilda (and The BFG) by Roald Dahl. Actually, make that anything by Roald Dahl.
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Ramona by Beverly Cleary (the series)
OTHER FAVORITES
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Seven classic novels from the 1950s, including the most famous, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. All seven, in time, and as you grow.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency and other madcap stories by Daniel Pinkwater
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, about a girl Robinson Crusoe. When you’re done, read the original Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien
My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Yes, another boy-hero-rescues-the-princesses plot (though here the princesses are Rhyme and Reason), but a great book nonetheless.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Tree Groes in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. The original books, and the poems.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOKS
Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Robot series
Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and Fahrenheit 451
Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and all the books in the Ender series
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence
Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger
Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Tombs of Atuan and her Earthsea trilogy
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong trilogy
Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
CLASSIC GIRL-AND-HER-HORSE BOOKS
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
MYTHOLOGIES AND FAIRY TALES
Bullfinch’s Mythology is a start. Some might say it’s for grown-ups, but read a few lines to yourself out loud and you’ll see whether or not it works for you.
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Once and Future King by T.H. White, about King Arthur’s Court.
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
The Odyssey by Homer
OLD-FASHIONED GIRL-DETECTIVE SERIES
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. Starting with The Secret of the Old Clock, all the mysteries in River Heights end in Nancy’s lap, and with her girlfriends George and Bess at her side, she always finds the secret passageways to solve them. The series began in the 1920s, and was revised twice, in the 1950s and the 2000s, each time becoming slightly less intrepid.
Trixie Belden. An even better girl detective series is the Trixie Belden books, featuring Trixie, a teenaged, freckle-faced tomboy from upstate New York whose down-to-earth nature, pluck, and quick thinking aid her in solving mysteries with her friends Honey and Jim. Julie Campbell started the series in 1948 and wrote the first six books; after that the books were written by a series of writers using the pseudonym Kathryn Kenny.
NONFICTION
When we were young and bored, our parents told us, “Go read the dictionary!” We did, and look where it got us. One should never underestimate the pleasure to be found flipping through a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or an old science book.
Miscellanea
AS WE REACH the end, there are some additional things one really should know, and here they are, in no particular order.
1. Skipping Stones. Find a rock as close to smooth, flat, and round as you can. Hold it flattest-side down, index finger curled around one edge, and throw it sidearm, low and parallel to the water, snapping the wrist at the last possible moment before you let go to give it some spin. The stone should hit the water at a low, 20 degree angle or so. Keep practicing till the stone bounces off the water a few times.
2. Steering a Sled. We’ll tell you here in case you do not know: it’s opposite to how you steer a bicycle or a car, and akin to a kayak or canoe. Lean left to go right. Lean right to go left.
3. Flying a Kite. Toss the kite into the wind, or run with the kite behind you until the wind catches it, then unhurriedly let the string out. If the kite swoops, pull on the string. Extra ribbons on the tail help to stabili
ze, and they are pretty too. Make sure there’s enough wind, then practice so the string in your hand feels like second nature.
4. Water Balloons. To fill, attach the mouth of the balloon to the water faucet (or use an adapter that comes with many packages of water balloons), and—this is key—keep the faucet on low so the water pressure doesn’t send the balloon into outer space. Once the water balloon smashes to the ground, clean up the colorful scraps, since when the fun’s over, the balloon remnants turn into trash.
5. Lanyards. Making lanyards (flat plastic thread box-stitched into a loop, bar, or creative shape) has been a treasured summertime activity. Lanyard strings were once extremely precious, and people who knew all the box stitch variations were popular and in high demand.
Nowadays, lanyard, or gimp, as some people call it, is more plentiful. It’s also more cheaply made, and doesn’t hold together as well when you cross it over in mysterious ways and pull it tight.
6. Cat’s Cradle. Now here’s an old-fashioned girl activity worth preserving. This two-person game of creating various figures with one string loop may actually be the oldest and most widely known game in the history of humanity.
Russians call it “the game of string,” and Chinese call it “catch cradle.” British geographer Alfred Wallace tried to teach the game to children in Borneo in the 1800s, only to have them show him new variations he had never seen. And Kenyan anthropologist Louis Leakey used it in the early 1900s to connect with African tribes.
It’s pretty much impossible to describe the intricate movements of cat’s cradle on paper without a lot of pictures. And it’s better to learn from someone in person anyway. So find a girl who knows and have her show you.
7. Ping-Pong. Forget nudging your parents for a horse; ask for a ping-pong table instead. Have a good supply of those air-filled white balls ready for when they lodge in the crevices between storage boxes that have been stacked high against the basement walls to make space for the ping-pong table. If you’re alone you can fold one of the table sides to vertical and push it against a wall to practice.
8. Harmonica. Invaluable for nights by the campfire when the embers are low, the camp songs are done, and nearly everyone has fallen asleep. Hold with your thumb and first finger. Blow breath into it, and draw it back through the holes. Experiment with sound. Flapping the other fingers up and down while you blow or draw will create a wavery vibrato.
9. Snowshoeing. The best sport for winter, because you don’t need a ski lift to get you up the hill. Just strap a pair of snowshoes on over your boots and head outdoors.
10. Temperature Conversions. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, and add 32. To convert temperatures the other way, from Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32, divide by 9, and multiply by 5.
11. Bicycle Wheelies. Whether yours is a tough mountain bike or a ladylike pastel blue number with tassels out the handlebars and a basket, you’ll want to know how to pop a wheelie.
Once you’re at speed, lean forward, hands grabbing the handlebars, and then shift your body weight slightly up and backward. That should be enough to lift the front wheel off the ground, whether you’re doing show-offs on the street in front of your house, or trying to get your bike over tree stumps on a rugged trail.
12. Handball. It sounds ridiculously boring but it’s not. Find a clean wall with no windows, or another flat surface, and bounce a pink rubber ball against it, open-handed. It’s the best way possible to discover what your hands can do, and to learn about angles of reflection. Play alone or with friends, rotating in when someone misses the ball.
13. Take Things Apart. Old televisions and fax machines, a cell phone that no longer works, or a computer that’s ten years out of date and living its final years in the back shed: no discarded machine should go undismantled. Teensy-tiny drivers and hex keys can unlock the smallest screws, so grab a hammer and whatever does the trick and see what’s inside. That’s how the world’s best engineers learned what they know.
14. Time Capsules. This girlhood of yours is filled with days to remember. Make a scrap-book if you like, but really, any old box will do—an antique tin, a shoebox, or a box hammered together from plywood and nails. Keep your mementos, letters, ticket stubs, the list of dreams scribbled on a napkin, a picture of your best friends, and the poem or phrase you thought up last night before bed. Stow this box of inspiration somewhere safe, keep adding to it, and don’t look at it for twenty years.
15. Words to Live By. Be brave and walk with confidence. And remember, in the words of Amelia Earhart, “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”
Daring Book for Girls Badges
This book wouldn’t be complete without some Daring Girl badges, which you can print out at our website: www.daringbookforgirls.com
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
8: Woman Having Her Palm Read, courtesy the Picture Collection, The Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
22: Princess Sarah Culberson, courtesy of Sarah Culberson
41: Mausoleum of Halicarnassus by Martin Heemskerck © Bettmann/CORBIS
56: Moai statues Photograph © Tim Waters www.flickr.com/photos/tim-waters
96: Coins of Salome Alexandria’s reign, © jewishencyclopedia.com
123: Amelia Earhart, Library of Congress
124: Alexandra David-Néel. Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy
126: Freya Stark, Popperfoto/Alamy
126: Florence Baker. Classic Image/Alamy
136: Mrs. John Adams (Abigail Smith), the Emmet Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
149: Hedy Lamarr, courtesy of MGM
150: Josephine Baker, Library of Congress
160: Antonius et Cleopatra, the Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
167-173: Scooter plans inspired by and adapted from Les Kenny of www.buildeazy.com, a website featuring building projects for kids and adults. Used with permission.
176: © iStockphoto.com/Douglas Allen
205: Florence Nightingale, Library of Congress
205: Clara Barton, Library of Congress
246: Topographic map: USGS
248: Jewelweed, Robert H. Mohlenbrock @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA SCS. 1989. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. Midwest National Technical Center, Lincoln, NE.
262: Queen Zenobia Addressing Her Soldiers, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, c. 1730, Samuel H. Kress Collection. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Acknowledgments
With thanks to our agents, Laura Gross and Sam Stoloff; Phil Friedman, Matthew Benjamin, Stephanie Meyers, and everyone at HarperCollins and The Stonesong Press. And to Molly Ashodian and her friends, Barbara Card Atkinson, Rob Baird, Samira Baird, Dana Barron, Gil Binenbaum, Nate Binenbaum, Steve and Nurit Binenbaum, Rona Binenbaum, the Bromley-Zimmerman family, Sarah Brown, Bill Buchanan, Elin Buchanan, Emi Buchanan, Jessie Buchanan, Shannon Buchanan, Betsy Busch, Stacy DeBroff, Katie Dolgenos, Asha Dornfest, Ann Douglas, Eileen Flanagan, Marcus Geduld, the Goldman-Hersh family, Kay Gormley, Sarah Heady, the Larrabee-O’Donovan family, Jack’s Marine, Jane Butler Kahle, Megan Pincus Kajitani, Les Kenny, Killian’s Hardware, Andy Lamas, Jen Lawrence, Sara Lorimer, Rachel Marcus, Molly Masyr, Metafilter (especially the women of Ask Metafilter), Jim Miller, Tracy Miller, Marjorie Osterhout, Myra and Dan Peskowitz, Deborah Rickards, Rittenhouse Lumber, Carol Sime, Lisa Suggitt of rollergirl. ca, Alexis Seabrook, Kate Scantlebury, Tom Sugrue, Carrie Szalay, and Felicia Sullivan. Appreciation to everyone who of fered advice and inspiration, and to daring girls everywhere.
The publisher and authors acknowledge the inspiration of The Dangerous Book for Boys for the concept and design for this book and are grateful to Conn and Hal Iggulden for their permission.
Copyright
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-061-84073-9
For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
FIRST EDITION
NOTE TO PARENTS: This book contains a number of activities which may be dangerous if not done exactly as directed or which may be inappropriate for young children. All of these activities should be carried out under adult supervision only. The authors and publishers expressly disclaim liability for any injury or damages that result from engaging in the activities contained in this book.
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