What Sarah Ellis loves about the girls in these stories is their sheer energy, their creative embrace of life's pleasures and troubles. Whether it's a case of helping their families survive, longing for an absent sister or simply wondering who their real friends are and where they themselves fit in, the heroines, each in her particular and utterly original way, manage to figure something out. Silly or serious, brash or quiet, each finds her own path. In choosing the twenty stories and excerpts that make up Girls' Own, writer and editor Sarah Ellis called upon some of Canada's best-known and beloved writers for young people, including Kit Pearson, Deborah Ellis, Jean Little, Teresa Toten, Joan Clark and Linda Holeman. The tales they tell take place in many different times, and in different parts of the world—a village in old China, a city in a modern-day Islamic country, a Blackfoot camp and downtown Vancouver. While the circumstances of their lives differ greatly, the girls share something in common: Each one is at the point of becoming someone new, while still remaining thoroughly herself. Girls' Own is a refreshingly modern take on a time-honoured tradition: a book of stories that interprets who girls are and what sorts of tales will captivate them.