The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know--and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes

Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers--although that's included, of course Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.

Andrea Buchanan lost her mind while crossing the street one day. Suffering from a horrible cough, she inhaled the cold March air, and choked. She was choking on a lot that day. A sick child. A pending divorce. The guilt of failing, as a partner, as a mother. Relieved when the coughing abated, she thought it was over. She could not have been more wrong.When Andrea coughed that day, a small tear was ripped in her dura mater, the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord. But she didn't know that yet. Instead, she went on with her day, unaware that her cerebrospinal fluid was already beginning to leak out of that tiny tear.What followed was nine months of pain and confusion as her brain-no longer cushioned by a healthy waterbed of fluid-sank to the bottom of her skull. There was brain fog and cognitive impairment to the point where she could not even make sense of the most basic concepts. At a time when she needed to be as clear-thinking as possible, she was trapped by her brain.The mind-brain connection is one of the greatest mysteries of the human condition. In some folklore, the fluid around the brain is where consciousness begins. Here, in the pages of The Beginning of Everything, Andrea seeks to understand: Where was I when I wasn't there?

According to Andrea Buchanan, Mother shock is the state in which many new parents exist during those first confusing, chaotic and often comical years of parenting. It is the clash between expectation and result, theory and reality. It is the twilight zone of 24-hour-a-day living; where life is no longer neatly divided into day and night; the triple-impact of hormonal imbalance, sleep deprivation, and physical exhaustion. It is the stress of trying to acclimate quickly to the immediacy of mothering; a new conception of oneself, one's role in the family and in the world; a fearful new level of responsibility, and a new delegation of domestic duties.

In this much-needed and delightfully funny collection of essays, Buchanan shares the insight she gains as she moves through the stages of mother shock. From Fear of the Double Stroller and Confessions of a Bottle Feeder to I'm an Idiot and Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Playgroup, Buchanan details the unimaginably difficult and unbelievably rewarding process of becoming a mother.

Daisy has an electrifying secret that could save her life--or kill herHigh school sophomore Daisy Jones is just trying to get by unnoticed. It doesn't help that she's the new girl at school, lives in a trailer park, and doesn't even own a cell phone. But there's a good reason for all that: Daisy has a secret, unpredictable power--one only her best friend, Danielle, knows about. Despite her gift (or is it a curse?), Daisy's doing a good job of fitting in, and a gorgeous senior named Kevin even seems interested in her! But when Daisy tries to help Vivi, a mysterious classmate in a crisis, she soon discovers that her new friend has a secret of her own. Now Daisy and her friends must deal with chilling dreams and messages from the beyond. Can Daisy channel the power she's always tried to hide, before it's too late? Extra features include: - A short graphic novel telling Vivi's story- Danielle's journal, revealing her deepest thoughts - Lyrics and video links for Kevin's music (songs composed by Fredrik Larsson, otherwise known as YouTube sensation FreddeGredde)

The searing and haunting debut novel from PEN finalist and New York Times bestselling author Andrea J. Buchanan

Spanning five generations of women, Five-Part Invention wrestles with the question--if trauma echoes through generations, can love echo, too? Is the love we transmit enough to undo the trauma of the past that we unwittingly carry with us and often re-enact in the present?

When Lise, a pianist, suffers a nervous breakdown early in her marriage, her husband, in a warped act of protection and jealousy, has her piano taken away. With prose that is precise and emotionally affecting, Buchanan vividly renders how Lise's separation from her one source of expression and fulfilment cascades into her relationship with her daughter, leaving a legacy of trauma that echoes through the generations to come. Characters emerge broken and passionate, jagged, and yet hopeful and emotionally resonant, written in a way that only Buchanan, herself a conservatory-trained pianist, could achieve.

Five-Part Invention is by turns frightening and exquisitely observed, and establishes Buchanan as a literary force.

The most popular question any pregnant woman is asked, aside from When are you due?, has got to be Are you having a girl or a boy?

When author Andrea Buchanan, already a mom to a little girl, was pregnant with her second child, she marveled at the response of friends and total strangers alike: Boys are wonderful, Boys are so much better than girls, Boys love their mothers differently than girls.

This constant refrain led her to explore the issue herself, with help from her fellow writers and moms, many of whom had had the same experience. The result is It's A Boy, a wide-ranging, often-humorous, and honest collection of essays about the experience of mothering boys. Taking on topics like aggression, parenting a teenage boy, and wishing for a daughter but getting a son, It's A Boy explores what it's like to mother sons and how that experience may be different, but no less satisfying, than mothering girls.

Daisy has an electrifying secret that could save her life--or kill her
High school sophomore Daisy Jones is just trying to get by unnoticed. It doesn't help that she's the new girl at school, lives in a trailer park, and doesn't even own a cell phone. But there's a good reason for all that: Daisy has a secret, unpredictable power--one only her best friend, Danielle, knows about. Despite her gift (or is it a curse?), Daisy's doing a good job of fitting in, and a gorgeous senior named Kevin even seems interested in her But when Daisy tries to help Vivi, a mysterious classmate in a crisis, she soon discovers that her new friend has a secret of her own. Now Daisy and her friends must deal with chilling dreams and messages from the beyond. Can Daisy channel the power she's always tried to hide, before it's too late? Extra features include: - A short graphic novel telling Vivi's story- Danielle's journal, revealing her deepest thoughts - Lyrics and video links for Kevin's music (songs composed by Fredrik Larsson, otherwise known as YouTube sensation FreddeGredde)

A PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist

A real-life neurological mystery and captivating story of reinvention by the New York Times bestselling author of The Daring Book for Girls.

Andrea Buchanan lost her mind while crossing the street one day. Suffering from a horrible cough, she inhaled the cold March air, and choked. She was choking on a lot that day. A sick son. A pending divorce. The guilt of failing, as a partner, as a mother. Relieved when the coughing abated, she thought it was over. She could not have been more wrong.

When Andrea coughed that day, a small tear was ripped in her dura mater, the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord. But she didn't know that yet. Instead, she went on with her day, unaware that her cerebrospinal fluid was already beginning to leak out of that tiny tear.

What followed was nine months of pain and confusion as her brain--no longer cushioned by a healthy waterbed of fluid--sank to the bottom of her skull. There was brain fog and cognitive impairment to the point where she could not even make sense of the most basic concepts. At a time when she needed to be as clear-thinking as possible, she was trapped by her brain.

The mind-brain connection is one of the greatest mysteries of the human condition. In some folklore, the fluid around the brain is where consciousness begins. Here, in the pages of The Beginning of Everything, Andrea seeks to understand: Where was I when I wasn't there?