70 Over 70: Many Years of Beers

Holly Beers, age 93, runs the general store he has owned for 70 years in Vanceboro, population 130

Packaging Girlhood

Publisher\u27s Weekly Starred Review. That girls are overwhelmed by images of princesses, demure femininity and pink, pink, pink is no surprise. What is shocking, as Lamb (The Secret Lives of Girls) and Brown (Meeting at the Crossroads) so astutely demonstrate, is the downright bombardment girls receive, coming from all forms of media. Lamb and Brown, both psychologists, came to harsh conclusions after they surveyed girls; sat through hours of Rugrats and Kim Possible television programming; scoured stores such as Hot Topic and Claire\u27s; watched Hilary Duff movies; listened to Eminem and Beyoncé; visited MySpace.com; and read Caldecott books. The idea of girl power was snapped up by the media, and what it sells is an image of being empowered, argue the authors. Girls are offered two choices by the marketers: they are either for the boys or one of the boys. Even rebellion is being packaged, the resistance, that edginess and irreverence that once gave girls a pathway out of the magic kingdom. The book is incredibly readable and rises above others in the genre by giving parents concrete tools to help battle stereotypes. Lamb and Brown include lists of books and movies with positive role models and talking points to help your daughter recognize how she is being manipulated. The authors aren\u27t trying to deny anyone princesses or pink; they just want girls to be knowledgeable enough to choose what will truly interest them. (Sept.

Tappan, Mark B., and Lyn Mikel Brown, Stories Told and Lessons Learned: Toward a Narrative Approach to Moral Development and Moral Education, Harvard Educational Review, 59(May, 1989), 182-205.*

Shows how narratives are used by children in authoring their own stories related to moral choice, action, and sensibility