Smart Girl's Guide to God, Guys and the Galaxy by Susie Shellenberger and Kristin Weber

As seen from the title, this book is for Christian girls who are in their tween-teen years. I'm guessing on the age thing, but judging from the content, I shouldn't be too wrong. If you're wondering why I, having left my teen years behind, requested this book, it's because I'm very partial to books that use the word "guide". And because it kind of reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Life, the Universe and Everything (the titles I mean). I believe the version for guys is called "Guys guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket".

This book is basically 101 short chapters, each about one piece of advice ranging from things like "Smell good" and "Wear crazy socks" to "If everyone jumps off a bridge, find out why they're jumping" and "Help keep "creepsters" away by disabling all location information on your social media" to "Go to God first with your problems" and "Study the Bible." Basically, it's a mix of sensible advice, Godly advice and just plain wacky ideas. Each chapter goes like this: advice -> Scripture verses -> questions to consider -> last note from the author of the chapter.

Personally, I liked this guide. The mix of advice was interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I really liked some of the chapters, like having guy friends and not being crazy for a boyfriend and (my favourite piece of advice) thinking of why everyone is jumping off the bridge. The "If everyone jumps off a bridge, find out why they're jumping" piece of advice is something that everyone should know (if they don't). It's basically encouraging you to look at the reason for a phenomenom before blindly following it or rejecting it outright.

The only one thing that's not even a proper criticism. There's a section of dressing modestly (which I agree with) and it ends with "If you're not sure something is appropriate, ask your parents, sister or trusted friend (not a guy friend)." Perhaps I just happen to have really protective guy friends, but they're normally more conservative than me. I have had separate conversations about a skirt, with the consensus from the girls as "it's ok what" and the guys going "too short, don't wear." For me, that last part would just read "trusted friend."

All in all, this is an interesting book that you can consider giving to teenage girl you know.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.