Blueprint for My Girls in Love: 99 Rules for Dating, Relationships, and Intimacy by Yasmin Shiraz

This year has seen an increased demand for books about relationships from girls here at Bronx Hope. Blueprint for My Girls in Love is often exactly what they’re looking for. Author and empowerment speaker Yasmin Shiraz has compiled ninety-nine rules for girls to help them keep their heads up and stay strong in the face of love and dating. Divided into three parts, Dating, Relationships, and Intimacy, Shiraz breaks it down with simple statements from the powerful, rule #12, “Self-love impacts every relationship that you will ever have” to the blunt, rule #32, “A boyfriend that hits you isn’t worth keeping.” For each of her ninety-nine rules, Shiraz describes the rule, includes a related personal anecdote to support the rule, and follows it with what she calls a “blueprint” and “your testimony.” The blueprints are usually one-liners where she models how she will take what she’s experienced and change her actions in the future; “your testimony” includes questions and sentence starters for readers to think about how they can connect their own stories to Shiraz’s rules.  Included in the back of the book is a section on who readers can talk to when they need support and, separately, information about birth control. Recommended for independent reading, especially for girls looking to make sense of their relationships with some straight-forward advice. --Anja Kennedy

Shiraz, Yasmin. Blueprint for My Girls in Love: 99 Rules for Dating, Relationships, and Intimacy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005. Print.