Miriam Peskowitz believes in daring. She is the host of the PBS show "Daring Kids with Miriam Peskowitz" and of the expanded Daring Kids DVD based on the show (www.daringkids.com). Peskowitz is also the co-author of the international bestseller The Daring Book for Girls. She avidly promotes the idea that all of us need to play more, get outdoors, learn interesting skills, and in all ways, reclaim childhood -- and adulthood -- away from those who have turned our lives into pressure-cookers. Stress, worry and social anxiety are destroying childhood as we know it, and hurting kids and adults both. As an antidote, Miriam Peskowitz's message is to be daring, live life with gusto, and try new things. Miriam herself has been an author, camp counselor, historian, blogger, musician, professor, entrepreneur, and now, a TV host.
Miriam Peskowitz's empowering TV show and books offer a how-to, can-do spirit. She is a warm and welcoming speaker, devoted to helping kids and adults find alternatives in which they seek adventure and follow their daring spirits and dreams.
Miriam has appeared on NBC's Today Show, CNN, Fox & Friends, Fox News' Book Hour, on Martha Stewart Radio, Oprah Radio, and American Voices with Senator Bill Bradley, a regular guest on NPR talk shows across the nation and on drive-time commercial radio. Miriam and The Daring Book for Girls have been featured in Newsweek, Time, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Times of London, Teen Vogue, NPR's Weekend Edition, and across the internet and blogosphere.
The Daring Book for Girls was published in 2007 to immediate acclaim, spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, and has been translated worldwide. It was followed up by two pocket-sized Daring Books, and by the sequel, The Double-Daring Book for Girls. The Daring Books are quintessential reading for girls of all ages who seek a life filled with curiosity, inspiration, and adventure, and is filled with everything from how to put your hair up with a pencil, make a peg-board game, shoot a basket or play darts, to the lives of ancient queens, tips for being a spy, and how to speak in public and to negotiate a salary. It speaks to people of all ages who seek relief from our pressure-filled world where everyone grows up too fast and too soon. An inspirational book, it marries our quick-in-coming technological changes to an older set of values in which family, friendship, and having the skills to make and fix things matter. Where our nine-year old girls no longer have to act like they are seventeen. Where a Sunday afternoon is not for shopping, but for hiking, reading, and laughing; for shortsheeting beds, running a lemonade stand, or learning to skateboard; or for making a cloth-covered book, a scooter from wood and nails, and a flashlight from a pair of D-cell batteries.
More information can be found on the book's website, www.daringbookforgirls.com.
Miriam's writing, media and speaking appearances are united by the themes of personal learning and curiosity, mixed with adventure and opportunity for all. She likes to hike, kayak, play squash, read, write and tinker in the backyard or the basement, depending on the season. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two dashing and daring girls.
Praise for The Daring Book for Girls:
"The authors mix inspiring tales of girls who made good . . . with a scrap bag of how-tos for girlish activities . . .The Daring Book for Girls keeps . . . practical knowledge from getting drowned in the techno-flow." -- The New York Times
"The essential how-to manual for the modern-day girl . . . celebrates the notion that everything boys can do, girls can do - better." -- Teen Vogue
"With tips on doing cartwheels and pulling pranks, The Daring Book for Girls is old-school cool - like its best-selling brother The Dangerous Book for Boys." -- Good Housekeeping
"An old-fashioned-fun-and survival guide specifically for the pigtail pack . . . offers primers on everything from changing a tire and negotiating pay to basic karate moves and lighthearted pranks. Now Hayley has no excuse for sitting at the computer while Zack is up in his tree house." -- Readers Digest
"Not that we're feeling competitive, but The Dangerous Book for Boys does seem a wee bit... exclusionary. Happily, The Daring Book for Girls shows the women of the future - and their adventurous elders (us!) - everything from how to tie a sari to how to negotiate a salary and clues them in on the first rules of softball (never apologize unless you actually bop someone). Among the joys: nearly extinct games (like 'Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board') that may have eluded you while you were busy with Barbie and boy toys." -- O, The Oprah Magazine
"The Dangerous Book for Boys is really cool, but can you blame us for feeling a little relieved - and excited - that there's now The Daring Book for Girls? (We were raised, after all, on Harriet the Spy and Riot Grrl.) The nice retro layout expedites lessons in lost arts like how to whistle with two fingers, play 14 different types of tag, and spy, but there are also great tips for the contemporary young woman, from how to negotiate a salary to math shortcuts to slumber-party games." -- New York Magazine
"The Dangerous Book for Boys, Conn and Hal Iggulden's take on classic British boys' periodicals, has been a fixture on the best-seller list . . . So it's no surprise that the red clothbound repository of activities and advice is now joined by The Daring Book for Girls." -- Newsweek