Girl, 13 by Starla Griffin

I read about this book at Eva's (http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/) blog and decided I had to read it. I ordered it from the library, the only copy in the entire system, and waited.

And waited.

and waited.

and waited.

The one person that had the book before me took their good old time.

I finally got it about a week ago and I was so excited! The book is profiles on over 40 different 13 year old girls all over the world. Every one starts with a questionaire asking questions like favorite foods, languages they can speak, favorite books, siblings, pets, etc... Then each girl writes something about herself and something about the best day of her life. The author writes about her experience meeting the girl. Sometimes there will be a little blurb about the girl's school or a certain holiday in her country.

Girl, 13 was an easy read, the pages are colorful so it wasn't a novel or anything. I found that if the girl didn't write her own entries in English and had to get it translated into English, there was something lost. Some of the girls' personalities really show, but the ones where their essays had to be translated didn't.

I'd really like to own this book, but it's kind of hard to find. It was the perfect book for all the weekend travelling I did. I was in a car for a total of 8 hours this weekend. It is light and not to involved, but interesting enough to make me want to pick it up when I could be doing something else.

B+