I was lucky to be brought up in a household where girls were considered more than equal. It never occurred to me that I couldn't do anything. But other girls tell me that this book was the thing that did it for them. It let them do what they wanted to do.

I was living with Joyce for a while in 1995 and took one such girl home to meet her one day. Joyce was pretty much as Julia was with Julie, if you happen to have seen the movie: entirely disapproving when told she had changed this girl's life.

It was pretty funny. ( )