A Smart Girl's Guide: Drama, Rumors & Secrets. Nancy Holyoke
Published by American Girl Publishing
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Editorial Development: Darcie Johnston
Art Direction and Design: Lisa Wilber
Illustrations: Brigette Barrager
Production: Jeannette Bailey, Judith Lary, Paula Moon, Kristi Tabrizi
Consultant: Jane Annunziata, Psy.D.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holyoke, Nancy.
Drama, rumors & secrets : staying true to yourself in changing times /
by Nancy Holyoke ; illustrated by Brigette Barrager.
1 online resource (A smart girl’s guide)
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by
publisher; resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-1-60958-946-2 (epub) — ISBN 978-1-60958-903-5 (pbk.)
1. Girls—United States—Psychology—Juvenile literature. 2. Interpersonal
relations in children—United States—Juvenile literature. 3. Interpersonal
relations in adolescence—United States--Juvenile literature.
4. Social interaction in children—United States. 5. Social interaction in
adolescence—United States.
I. Barrager, Brigette, illustrator. II. Title.
HQ777 305.230820973—dc23 2014032178
Dear Reader,
In the following pages, girls like you speak out about
drama.
They talk about feuds, gossip, jealousy, competition,
teasing, backstabbing, and exclusion—problems that are
familiar to almost every girl between the ages of seven
and seventeen.
Drama often hits a peak around the time a girl goes to
middle school, but it may start a lot earlier. Some girls
seem to thrive on it. Others suffer badly. Many feel
swept along by a situation that brings out the worst in
just about everybody.
As one girl wrote in a post to American Girl: “Drama stinks,
but everyone has to deal with it.”
This book shows you how to do just that. It explores why
drama exists, how a drama starts, what keeps a drama
going, and how to cool one down. Along the way, you’ll
find quizzes that can help you see how friends create
drama, and how you might be contributing to it yourself.
How can you avoid drama? How can you handle a dramatic
friend? What can you do to protect yourself when a
drama’s raging? That’s all here, too.
By the final pages, we hope you have a whole new under-
standing of what drama is actually about—and a new
appreciation for the power you have to stop it.
Your friends at American Girl
contents
Quiz: what do you do when you’re mad?