Parents' Guide to

Living the Confidence Code: Real Girls. Real Stories. Real Confidence.

By Mandie Caroll, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Compelling, relatable stories inspire girls to greatness.

Living the Confidence Code: Real Girls. Real Stories. Real Confidence. Poster Image

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In this powerful collection of girls' stories of confidence-building, authors Katty Kay, Claire Shipman, and JillEllyn Riley demonstrate that there are many paths to leadership and making change. Living the Confidence Code features truly impressive girls, but their stories also cover low points, failures, or fears, as well as plain old fun information like each girl's favorite comfort food and dream destination. Readers will find it hard not to connect with at least several of the girls struggles and triumphs. The authors link aspects of each story to research-backed confidence building skills, identify potential obstacles and offer tips on how to grow from them.

The warm, conversational narration will appeal to tweens and teens, while the varied fonts on each page add interest and emphasis. Nan Lawson's grayscale-and-teal comic-strip renderings of some of the girls' stories and her decorations of all the girls' portraits lend a joyful feel to stories that sometimes cover serious topics. This valuable book definitely deserves a spot in tween and teen girls' to-be-read piles.

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