50 Things Every Young Lady Should Know

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50 Things Every Young Lady Should Know, by Kay West, John Bridges, and Bryan Curtis

The young lady's etiquette manual has been updated for modern life in this little book. It's not too short and not too long, very readable, and full of good information for a younger teenage girl. I'd say that this is one step up in maturity from the excellent American Girl books on how to behave, and aimed at girls 11-15. My own 11-year-old daughter is reading and enjoying it. I think she'll be glad to have it to refer to now that she's a little older.

West divides her material into tiny little chapters, one to each topic. Each section gives basic directions, a list of do's and don'ts with reasons, and then two or three rules to sum up. Topics include everything from making introductions and dealing with fancy table settings to cell phone etiquette and rules for Facebook. Those features of modern life are discussed in detail and the rules given are quite good, so I'd recommend it for that alone. I was also pleased to see entries on how to accept a compliment or an apology, the pitfalls of gossip, and how to explain your food allergies to your host. The book covers the basics of dating, but does not address the topic indepth.

A companion book for boys is also available; in fact these are part of the "GentleManners" series by John Bridges on how to behave correctly in every possible situation (mostly for gentlemen; I'm hoping to see more volumes for ladies in the future). The GentleManners series is published by Thomas Nelson, which is a very old Protestant Christian publishing house, but 50 Things Every Young Lady Should Know is addressed to a general audience, so there's no need to worry if you're not Protestant.

I thought this was a very nice manual on behavior for a young teenage girl. If you have one of those, I think it's worth getting. Most girls want to know how to behave and make a good impression, and this covers all the bases.

I received a free copy of this book from Booksneeze in exchange for an honest review.

Comments

  1. JennyOctober 21, 2011 at 7:52 AM

    Looks good! I just got "The Book of Man" from Booksneeze and it is my favorite so far. If you order it, make sure to get the print version because it is so nice that it would make a good Christmas present.

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  2. JeanOctober 21, 2011 at 3:29 PM

    Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look at that one soon--I ordered the Pershing one before you posted, but that's good--I've just been reading a bit about WWI and it's one of the big things I need to learn more about.

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  3. JennyOctober 23, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    The Pershing one will be great! I've actually now changed my mind about The Book of Man. I like all of the selections, but I'm not so sure about the introduction. But since we are from different faiths, you might feel differently.

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  4. JeanOctober 23, 2011 at 7:23 PM

    Well, I read your review, and it doesn't really sound like my kind of book. I'd be interested to see what's included, but I don't want to own it particularly.

    ReplyDelete

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