The Daring Book for Girls

by Andrea J. Buchanan; Alexis Seabrook; Miriam Peskowitz

  Naked

  A spy operating without cover or backup.

  Paroles

  Passwords agents use to identify each other.

  Peep

  Photographer.

  Pocket Litter

  Items in a spy’s pocket (receipts, coins, etc.) that add authenticity to her identity.

  Ring

  A network of spies or agents.

  Safehouse

  A secret hideout.

  Sanitize

  To “clean up” a report or other document to hide sensitive information.

  Sleeper agents

  Spies who are placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but to be activated later.

  Spook

  Another word for spy.

  Target

  The person being spied on. (Also hard target: A target who actively maintains secrecy and doesn’t let on that she is aware of the surveillance team.)

  The Take

  Information gathered by spying.

  Trigger

  An agent who watches for the target and alerts the rest of the surveillance team when the target is spotted.

  Unsub

  An unknown subject in a surveillance operation.

  Undercover

  Disguising your identity, or using an assumed identity, in order to learn secret information.

  Walk-ins

  Agents who offer their services.

  Window Dressing

  Like pocket litter, this is extra information included in a cover story to help make it seem more real.

  Climbing

  JO MARCH, the heroine of Little Women, declares that no girl can be her friend who refuses to climb trees and leap fences. Louisa May Alcott wrote that book in 1868. British author Charlotte Yonge wrote in the late 1800s that girls showed “a wholesome delight in rushing about at full speed, playing at active games, climbing trees, rowing boats, making dirt-pies and the like.” Award-winning actress Beah Richards penned a poem in 1951 called “Keep Climbing, Girls,” in which she urged girls to “climb right up to the toppermost bough of the very tallest tree.” To keep you in tune with your adventuresome foremothers, here are some tree-climbing tips that Jo March might have suggested to new friends, along with some ideas for shimmying up ropes.

  TREES

  The key to successful tree climbing is understanding that you are not pulling yourself up vertically; tree-climbing is hard enough without trying to entirely defy gravity. You are sturdily pushing the plane of your body into the tree diagonally while your arms reach around the trunk, and shimmying up, inch by inch. Tree climbing doesn’t necessarily cause injury, but falling out of one surely does. Climb with caution.

  ROPES

  Read these directions and trust that when you’re standing in front of a rope in gym class, they will make good sense. Here’s how to tackle the miraculous feat that is rope climbing:

  ♦ Grab the rope with your hands, and pull the rope down as you jump up.

  ♦ This sounds odd, but it works: Right after you grab and jump, grapple the rope with your legs so that one ankle wraps around the rope, then end in a position where your two feet hold tightly against the rope. You are up.

  ♦ To climb: Hold tight with your legs and stretch your arms, one after the other, as high up as possible on the rope. Now comes the secret trick. Use your stomach muscles, or abdominals, to crunch your legs up toward your arms. You may not move far, but keep shimmying, inch by inch. Reach your arms, crunch with your stomach, and grab the rope with your feet. As your torso gets stronger, and your arms and legs, too, rope climbing will become much easier, and all the more gratifying.

  Climbing walls at gyms are a great place to practice. Keep climbing, but remember once you go up, you still have to figure out how to safely get down!

  Queens of the Ancient World III

  Cleopatra of Egypt: Queen of Kings

  CLEOPATRA VII was the last of a long line of ancient Egyptian queens. She ruled Egypt for twenty-one years, from 51 to 30 BC, and was famously linked with the Roman generals Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. It was the Greek historian Plutarch (46-122 AD), however, who turned Cleopatra into a legend. Plutarch reports that although she was not conventionally beautiful, Cleopatra’s persona was bewitching and irresistible. The sound of her voice brought pleasure, like an instrument of many strings, and she was intelligent, charming, witty, and outrageous.

  Cleopatra’s City: Alexandria

  Cleopatra was born in 70 BC, one of King Ptolemy XII’s six children. She came of age in Alexandria, Egypt’s capital city and a bustling port on the Mediterranean Sea. The Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, gleamed over Alexandria’s harbor and welcomed ships and people to this vibrant and cosmopolitan city. The celebrated mathematician Euclid had lived there and published his thirteen-volume Elements, filled with all the known principles of geometry and algebra. Alexandria’s marble Library was the largest in the world, and philosophers in the Greek tradition of Aristotle and Plato roamed Alexandria’s streets.

  Egypt was wealthy, besides. Craftspeople produced glass, metal, papyrus writing sheets, and cloth. The fertile countryside produced grain that was shipped all over the Mediterranean region to make bread.

  Queen of a Threatened Nation

  Despite this grand history, in the 50s BC, Egypt was struggling. Rome’s armies had already conquered most of the nearby nations. Egypt remained independent, but no one knew how long it would be able to survive Rome’s expansion. Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII, had made an unequal alliance with Rome. He had lost several territories, like the island of Cyprus, and faced political rebellions from his own children.

  When her father died in 51 BC, Cleopatra was only eighteen years old. Still, she was named his successor, along with her twelve-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII. Throughout her long reign, she vowed to protect Egypt’s independence. She did so until the bitter end with the help of a strong navy and her romantic alliances with the most powerful men of Rome.

  Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

  When Cleopatra became queen, Rome was embroiled in its own civil drama. Rome had long been a republic that prided itself in democracy and in measured rule by its Senate. Now, ambitious men were taking over. Three of these power-hungry men—Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus—secretively joined forces as The First Triumvirate in 60 BC to gain more control. Soon though, they began to fight each other.

  In 48 BC, Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, just north of Italy. Flush with the thrill of victory, he led his soldiers back to Rome. There was a tradition that no general’s soldiers were to cross the Rubicon River into the city, but Caesar ignored that and brought his army across. He waged armed civil war against his now-enemy Pompey and the Senate, on land and at sea. Pompey fled to Alexandria, with Caesar in pursuit.

  Alexandria had fallen into violence. Cleopatra and her brother were quarreling, as each tried to steal power from the other, and there was no law and order. The sibling rulers looked to Roman rivals Pompey and Julius Caesar, knowing they needed to make an alliance, and not knowing which of them they should trust.

  As the fighting in Alexandria worsened, Cleopatra fled the city with her younger sister. At the same time, one of her brother’s fighters, feeling emboldened, assassinated Pompey. He hoped the act would endear him to Julius Caesar, who would then take the brother’s side and install him as sole Pharaoh of Egypt. However, when Caesar saw the remains of Pompey, including his signet ring with an emblem of a lion holding a sword in his paws, he was furious. Roman generals had their own sense of honor, and this was no way for the life of a famed Roman leader to end. Julius Caesar was angry with the brother and banished him from Egypt.

  And so in 47 BC, Cleopatra became the sole Queen of Egypt. Julius Caesar named her Pharaoh and Queen of Kings, and Cleopatra styled herself as the incarnation of the Egyptian mother-goddess Isis. She and Julius Caesar also fell in love. The Roman conqueror and the Egyptian qu
een had a child together. They named him Ptolemy Caesar, thus joining the traditional names of Egypt and Rome. His nickname was Caesarion.

  Soon after Caesarion’s birth, a cabal of Roman senators who feared Caesar’s growing power assassinated him on the infamous Ides of March (the 15th of March, 44 BC). Cleopatra and her son had been with Caesar in Rome, and after his death, they returned by ship to Alexandria. Having seen Roman politics up close, Cleopatra knew that Rome would play an important role in her future, but she knew not how.

  Cleopatra and Marc Antony

  After Caesar’s death, Rome was ruled by a Second Triumvirate: Octavian, Lepidus, and Mark Antony. Antony was in charge of Rome’s eastern provinces and had his eye set on Egypt. In 42 BC, he summoned Cleopatra to a meeting. Cleopatra finally agreed to meet Mark Antony in the city of Tarsus. She arrived in grandeur, on a golden ship with brilliant purple sails, and demanded that he come aboard and talk with her there. They too fell in love, and nine months later, she gave birth to their twins, named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II.

  Marc Antony was worn out by the political life of Rome. Despite his great popularity with the Roman people, he was losing political ground to his nemesis, the brilliant Octavian. Antony moved to Alexandria to live with Cleopatra, and they had another child.

  Cleopatra’s fate would now be inseparable from that of Marc Antony and his foe Octavian. Octavian wanted Egypt’s wealth, and he wanted Marc Antony’s power. Julius Caesar had named Octavian his legal heir before he died, but Octavian still feared that Caesarion (Caesar’s son with Cleopatra) would one day challenge him for the leadership of Rome.

  Octavian and the Roman Senate declared war against Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian’s general Agrippa captured one of Antony’s Greek cities, Methone. On a September morning in 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra commanded a flotilla of ships to arrive at the Gulf of Actium, on the western coast of Greece, to win the city back.

  Egypt’s Last Queen

  The battle would be a disaster for Cleopatra. Before day’s end she would turn her ships back to Alexandria, followed by Marc Antony, who had lost many ships and many men. Their day was over. Soon, Octavian’s forces threatened Alexandria. With Antony already dead by his own hand, Cleopatra chose to kill herself rather than be taken prisoner and displayed in Octavian’s triumphal march through the streets of Rome.

  Still considering Caesarian a threat, Octavian had the twelve-year-old put to death. He brought Cleopatra’s three children with Marc Antony to Rome, where they were raised by Octavian’s sister Octavia, who had also been Antony’s Roman wife and was now his widow.

  One era ended, and another began. Cleopatra was independent Egypt’s last Queen and reigning Pharaoh. Having defeated Cleopatra, Octavian declared Egypt a Roman province. He commandeered Egypt’s immense treasure to pay his soldiers. Having vanquished Marc Antony, Octavian ushered in the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, and became the first Emperor of Rome.

  Lemonade Stand

  ALEMONADE STAND is a great way to earn a little spending money and meet your neighbors. What you need:

  Lemonade, in a pitcher or large thermos

  Ice (and a cooler to keep it frozen)

  Snacks

  Cups and napkins

  Change box, or the cash register you played with in kindergarten, if your little sister hasn’t broken it

  Folding card table

  Big sign, most definitely, and a price list

  Chairs or a bench, if you’d like

  Optional: Music, or another way to call attention to the stand

  Lemonade and brownies are a classic combination. Baking brownies from a box is quick work, and we’ve included recipes for other treats as well.

  Crafts are good, too—perhaps friendship bracelets, which you can work on between customers. You might also devote half the table to a mini yard sale, and sell odds-and-ends you’ve outgrown. This is where the card table’s size comes in handy.

  RECIPES FOR YOUR STAND

  Lemonade

  If you want to squeeze fresh lemons, here’s the basic recipe, which yields 4 cups. You can see that making enough fresh lemonade for your stand will entail much lemon-juicing time.

  4 cups of water

  Juice from 6 lemons

  ¾ cup of sugar, or more, depending on whether you prefer sweet or tart lemonade

  Mix together by hand or in a blender, adjust sweetness, and serve over ice.

  Alternately, you can make lemonade from frozen lemonade concentrate, available at the grocery, or from dry mix. There’s nothing wrong with these not-from-scratch options, especially if the idea is to get out to the street and sell some lemonade, not stand at the kitchen counter all morning juicing lemons. Follow the directions on the can or bag. You can always cut some thin lemon slices, and add one to each cup of lemonade you pour.

  Lemon Candy Straw Treats

  To make this old-fashioned treat, push a lemon candy stick (these are hollow inside) into the open side of a lemon that’s been cut in half. The combo of the tart lemon and the sweet stick is perfect. To make this treat from a whole lemon, use an apple corer, lemon juicer, or a sharp knife to make a hole for the candy straw. You can also use oranges or limes.

  BAKED GOODS

  Shortbread makes an excellent and unexpected addition to any full-service lemonade stand, as does fudge. Both recipes are incredibly easy, although fudge will take forethought, as it needs two hours or so in the refrigerator to become firm.

  Shortbread

  1 cup of sugar

  1 cup of butter (equals two sticks, or ½ pound)

  3 cups of all-purpose flour

  Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Cream the sugar and butter. Measure in 2½ cups of flour, and mix thoroughly. Flour a tabletop, counter, or wooden board with the leftover ½ cup of flour, and knead until you see cracks on the dough’s surface. Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick, and cut into squares, bars, or any shape you wish. With a fork, prick the cookies, and put them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, until the tops are light brown. You can also add almonds, hazelnuts, or chocolate chips to the dough if you like.

  Fudge

  2 packages, or 16 squares, of semi-sweet baking chocolate

  1 can of sweetened condensed milk, the 14-ounce size

  1 teaspoon vanilla

  Melt the chocolate with the condensed milk, either in a microwave for 2-3 minutes, or on top of the stove. The chocolate should be almost but not entirely melted. Stir, and the chocolate will melt fully. Add vanilla. Line a square pan (8 inches is a good size) with wax paper, and pour in the chocolate-milk-vanilla mixture. Chill for two hours or more if needed, until firm. Cut into bars or squares.

  CALCULATING YOUR PROFIT

  If you are working your lemonade stand to save up dollars for a Swiss Army knife or a special book, you must understand how to figure out how much you earned—that is, your profit. Let’s say you make the expanded-version lemonade stand. From the sale of lemonade, fudge, and three Beanie Babies, you earned $32.

  First figure the profit, using this standard equation:

  Revenue (money taken in) minus Expenses (food, drink, etc.) equals Profit

  Revenue: You sold 30 cups of lemonade and 20 pieces of fudge, charged 50 cents for each item and earned $25. Plus, someone paid you $7 for those Beanie Babies your great aunt brought for your second birthday. At the end of the day you took in $32.

  Expenses:

  3 cans of frozen lemonade 2.50

  38 plastic cups 1.50

  fudge ingredients 2.00

  Total Expenses 6.00

  Now plug the numbers into the equation: 32 minus 6 equals 26. You cleared $26 in profit.

  How to Paddle a Canoe

  THERE ARE LARGER, faster and more complex boats than a canoe, kayak, or raft, but in none of those fancier boats can you feel the water so closely, touch the mussels that cling tight in willow shoals, or slip into creeks and shallow wetlands to drift silently alongside cormorants, ospre
y, and swan.

  Paddling a boat is an art that, like most pursuits, just needs practice to master. Huck Finn may have floated the Mississippi on a raft, and white-water kayaking is a thrill, but short of those, nothing beats a canoe for a water adventure.

  Sometimes you need to be alone, and your canoe is there for you. Other times you want to adventure with a friend, and canoeing together is an exhilarating lesson in teamwork.

  To learn to canoe, you should know these basic boat words, strokes, and concepts.

  The ordinary canoe stroke is the forward stroke. To paddle on the right, grab the grip (or top knob of the paddle) with your left hand, and the shaft with your right. Put the paddle into the water, perpendicular to the boat, and pull it back and then out of the water. Keep your arms straight and twist your torso as you paddle. To paddle on the left, hold the grip with your right hand, the shaft with your left, and repeat.

  To change course and return from whence you came, turn the boat, and then paddle forward in the new direction. The back stroke, then, merely causes the boat to slow, or even stop. Put the paddle in the water slightly back, near the line of your hips, and pull toward the front, and then out.

  It’s important to remember that a canoe is not a bicycle. If you turn bicycle handlebars to the right, the bike will turn rightward. Not so in a canoe. When you paddle to the right, the boat will shift left. The opposite is true, too: left paddling pushes the boat to the right. Rotate your body as you paddle, since the power comes not from your arms, exactly, but from your torso. With practice, you will learn to do this instinctively, using your hips and body weight to control the boat’s direction.

  Two-person canoeing is a delicate dance whereby the person at stern steers and gives directions while the person at bow paddles, changing sides at will to keep the boat in its line.