Secret Keeper

Those of you who know me, know that my daughter is a reader. I mean, Really a reader. Like in the sense that she'd rather take a book outside at recess than play with her friends (and she does have friends, but I guess the book is more interesting?)

When she was younger, and she'd get in trouble (and trust me, she did get in trouble) we'd try to take all sorts of things from her. Like we'd take away outside play for the afternoon. Or her barbies/polly pockets/Little Pet Shop/dollhouse/whatever. Or tv time. Or gymnastics. Or dance class. Or heck, even a birthday party or sleepover or playtime at her best friend's house.

NOTHING WORKED!!!

Nothing, until we heard Dr. Phil. "Every child has their currency." (Also echoed by Dr. Glenn Latham, the absolutely best parenting book author, who I'm totally convinced was divinely inspired, he's that good). So we started thinking, well, she absolutely loves her books...

Who wants to ground a child from books? BOOKS!! Really!! But it made sense. When she was in first grade, she asked santa for a HUGE box of books, a lamp for her nightstand to read with, and a bookshelf for them. No toys. No dolls. No clothes, candy, art supplies, bike, nothing. Books. And boy did Santa come through.

I think I counted like 150 books? It only took maybe two months for her to go through them all.

(FYI, it didn't work either. She'd just pick up the phone book or dictionary and read that. Or read out of the library at school. What kind of punishment is that? UGH!!!)

So you can image that any opportunity to get a new book is quite the exciting event for my child.

When Team Mom contacted me to ask if I wanted to review a book series, I jumped on it. We can't get enough books around here.

I've never heard of these books before: the Secret Keeper Girl series, and I'm a bit picky about the books she reads, so I read them all before I give them to her. (I'll have to tell that story later b/c once I found something B-A-D in a second grade level book)

So I read through this, and I was quite impressed. It's four girls, who weren't really friends, but came together because of their struggles to fit in in junior high. They form a club so they will have friends who won't judge them and they can trust. And the book I read, Danika's Totally Terrible Toss, was completely about a very rich kid learning to choose the right!

In Ashley's word, "Awesome!!!" She Loved it!! Definitely a thumbs up here, and we are hoping that Santa completes the collection for us!

(Can find at amazon and barnes and nobles--retail is $7.99!)
www.secretkeepergirl.com