The Girliest Book in the Library

The other day, I had what was quite possibly the funniest legitimate reference/reader's advisory question ever. A boy who seemed to be about 11 or 12 years old asked me to give him the girliest book in the library. Apparently he needed the book for a bet. I decided that while I probably didn't really want to know more about the bet it was probably mostly harmless, so I found the girliest book I could think of: A Princess Primer. This is a large pink and purple book laden with jewels that teaches young girls everything they could possibly want to know about being a princess. How much girlier can you get?

The boy agreed that the book was, indeed, very girly. But it wasn't quite what he was looking for - he wanted something closer to his own reading level. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this at first. I bought myself some thinking time by explaining that often, when girls get a little older, they're not necessarily into really girly things like princesses and ponies and fairies anymore. Then I remembered some of the really girly series that we have - things like Rainbow Magic and Tinkerbell. I took him over to the paperback spinners and we talked about some of the series that are written with girls in mind. This boy seemed pretty happy with that, so I left him to browse through these books.

About 10 or 15 minutes later, the boy came back to the desk with a big smile on his face, eager to show me his final selection. But what did he pick? Nothing that I showed him, that's for sure! The book he found came from the YA shelves, which are conveniently located near the spinners where I left him. The title? Braless in Wonderland by Debbie Reed Fischer. I'm not sure if the boy read the synopsis (the story is apparently about a girl who goes to Miami to launch her modeling career) or if he was simply taken with the title. Regardless of the reasons for his selection, this boy was clearly very proud of himself for finding such as "girly" book.

Ah, the minds of 11-year-old boys never cease to amaze me...