The Girl’s Own Book (1833)

AUTHOR: Child, Lydia Maria

KEYWORDS: animals

SUMMARY (Bryn Skibo, edited Deborah Madsen)

In this book, Lydia Maria Child offers general advice to young girls and their mothers with suggestions for games, advice for sewing and mending and keeping animals, and moral stories of young girls. In relation to animals, she advises against keeping animals that are indigenous to the local area because they should be kept outside and wild. Otherwise, exotic animals should be kept in clean quarters suited to their needs and habitats. The stories repeat some of the same themes and advice found in Child’s earlier texts (especially Philothea) that promote the image of girls as being ideally mild, modest, kind-hearted, and respectful.