On My Honor

The Girl Scouts do a lot more than sell cookies; they teach respect, confidence, compassion and leadership. The philosophy of the organization and the activities and projects the girls participate in are the inspiration of Girl Scouts founder Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low. Finding herself a widow in her 50s, Low decided it is never too late to change your life, so she helped write and publish “How Girls Can Help Their Country,” a feminist self-help book before either term even existed. On March 12, 1912, Low registered the first troop of Girl Scouts. On My Honor (Sourcebooks, March 2012, $14.99 US, TP, ISBN 978-1-4022-6793-2) by former Washington Post staff columnist and reporter Shannon Henry Kleiber shares the groundbreaking, now-classic advice of Girl Scouts founder Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low through a modern lens. When she first became a troop leader for her daughter, Kleiber searched for but could not find a recent biography about Daisy, so she set out to create her own. Kleiber puts her storytelling skills to good use and combines Daisy’s unusual and exceptional history, the ways her guidance is still relevant today, and the things Kleiber learned with the girls in her troop on her journey to share the advice, inspiration and history of a woman who gave girls a voice before the country gave women a vote.