Though I’m not a big fan of suggesting that any particular activities—or clothes, or colors, or toys—are only for boys or only for girls, my kids will be getting The Daring Book for Girls for Christmas this year. Because it’s just that fabulous. (Also blue! And sparkly!)

The Daring Book is chock-full of, well, everything a girl should know. There’s history here (female pirates! and princesses!), and carpentry (how to build the ultimate scooter!), and general time-consuming fun (folding the coolest paper airplane ever!). There’s advice about boys (in part: “there’s no great big mystery about boys. Boys are people”), a list of essential gear (flashlights and duct tape, of course), and rules for four-square and basketball. There are directions for making cootie catchers and daisy chains. Really, everything a kid might need to keep busy from now until next spring. At least.

I could have done without the section on slumber party games—my kids don’t really need to know the history of the game “bloody mary,” because I’m a fuddy duddy like that—but in an almost 300-page book, I’m okay with skipping three pages.

And as for those who suggest that these activities appeal to parents nostalgic for their 1970s childhoods, I say: Hey, I didn’t even grow up in the seventies! And neither did my daughters. But we plan to thoroughly enjoy making peach pit rings and singing campfire songs anyway. So there.

Check out the Daring Girls website. And for even more on The Daring Book for Girls, visit MotherTalk.

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book, as well as a small honorarium from MotherTalk for participating in this blog book tour.