Parenting is difficult! I constantly wonder what to tell my daughter, how much to tell her, when to tell her.

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I don’t expect to be perfect but, well, everyone is different and I often wish my mother had gone about things in a different way with me yet, I’m not sure exactly how to do that with my own daughter.

So, when ‘The Truth: I’m a Girl, I’m Smart and I Know Everything’ by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein showed up as an offering at Pump Up Your Book I jumped on it and begged to be a reviewer. Except then I realized that although I have the best of intentions I rarely start much less finish books that aren’t, well, fiction. So I sat with the book on my coffee table for weeks. Just looking at it while I read many others. Finally, last week, knowing I could procrastinate no longer I picked it up… keeping my Nook close by for when I got bored. Guess what? I never grabbed my Nook. I forgot to get up to finish the laundry. I stayed up past my bedtime. I just couldn’t put the book down!

Not only is it interesting but it’s revealing. I’m thirty four years old for goodness sakes and still had the impression that I was the only one who felt that way! All these years I’ve been under the misconception that I was alone! The worst part? I really haven’t been very honest with my daughter because I thought she’d be different than me. Better, I suppose. More confident. That things would be easier for her because her childhood wasn’t all screwed up.

This book and the way it’s written makes it easy to read a ‘diary page’ a day – you and your daughter – and review what you felt, how she feels, when things will change. It will remind you that being a kid isn’t easy and it just keeps getting harder. It will also remind you to stop taking yourself so seriously and start looking at how the things you do affect the lives of your children.

Oh, and don’t keep this book to yourself. Share it. Give copies away. And when you see a girl that needs it… don’t hesitate to share what her mother won’t. Every child needs to KNOW that they are normal.

** Many of the books I review are Advance Review Copies. These books are loaned to me for my review. I am in no way compensated for my time nor am I asked to give anything but my honest review. Thank you to Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein!