The Double Daring Book for Girls

June 1, 2009 Riley Reading and Writing

I don’t know about you, but I love a good challenge. The Double Daring Book for Girls recently came out and it is chock full of truths, dares, double dares, triple dares, and even the dreaded triple dog dares. What does that even mean? While the obvious audience of young girls attending slumber parties is a no brainer for this book, it should also be known that there’s a lot of fun here for adult women too.

Case in point, I attended a mom’s night out at a friend’s house not too long ago. I had just gotten the book and had been flipping through it, randomly exclaiming “Oh my gosh! I can do that!” or “Hey! I did that once!” (or in the case of surfing, “Dude, it is just not that easy”). I decided to bring the book with me to the moms night, and it turns out, I am not the only gal out there who likes a challenge.

Nine women spent the evening drinking wine and eating hors d’ouerves and flipping through that whole book. We discussed the things that used to keep us awake at night when we slept over our friends’ houses in high school, and found that most of us still have a keen interest in these same subjects. And thanks to my friend’s well-stocked toy closet, we found ourselves attempting things we haven’t done in a while:

Hula Hooping: I failed miserably at hula hooping anyone under the table, and instead chose to brag that my sister in law would have smoked all of them if she’d been at the girls night. No lie – she could easily hoop for 15 minutes straight.

Tying a sarong: I rocked this one. Oh yeah. I can not only tie faster than anyone, I knew ways to wear a sarong that weren’t even in the book. Call me straight off the islands, baby!

Dreams and their meanings: I learned that one of my friends thinks she is above it all (I can still hear her arguing “That’s not what it means!” while the rest of us laughed) and we all learned that nightmares have nothing to do with horses.

Moon and Moon Lore: We quizzed one another on lunar fact and fiction and found out not a single one of us know anything about the moon. In other news, none of us are astronomers (though a couple follow astrology).

Playing the harmonica: following raiding the toy closet for the hula hoop, we attacked it again for a lime green, sort of transparent harmonica. Everyone kept insisting on wiping it down with an antibacterial wipe after using it, which really left a bad taste on my lips (I don’t recall being nervous about germs like that when I was a kid). Anyways, it turns out one of my friends can actually play the refrain from Piano Man – it’s the only thing she knows how to play and it took her a while to remember it, but still pretty impressive seeing as the rest of us just know how to make noise.

Charades: The evening ended with a massive game of charades during which every single one of us told a charades memory from our childhood (mine being the time my brother answered Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde within seconds of my other brother performing the answer).

As for the next girls night? We all agreed that the book should come back. In some ways, it’s more fun than Bunco. On the other hand, you can win money from Bunco. So take your pick: money or fun. Because if I have to bet on who has better calligraphy, I’m not betting on myself…

For more information:

Visit the Double Daring Book for Girls website here.

Buy the book here.

I also reviewed their first book, The Daring Book for Girls, here.