I am an Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler

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Stars: ****

Villard [Imprint of Random House] (2010)
Teen Fiction (but more like nonfiction)
176 pages

Summary: Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues) writes fictional monologues and stories inspired by girls around the globe.
Among the girls Ensler creates are an American who struggles with peer pressure in a suburban high school; an anorexic blogging as she eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Bulgarian sex slave, no more than fifteen, a Chinese factory worker making Barbies; an Iranian student who is tricked into a nose job; a pregnant girl trying to decide if she should keep her baby.

This book was both amazing and shocking at the same time. These monologues could easily have been written by the teen and tween girls themselves. Eve Ensler did a great job of channeling what girls around the world are thinking.  One could easily mistake these monologues as being by many different teen girls but Eve Ensler crafted them after traveling the world, witnessing events and listening to real conversations. She mentions that sometimes they were inspired by an article, experience, memory, dream, wish, image or moment of grief or rage.

The monologues are short, some in poem form and so it’s a quick read, a book you could read a little here and there, except for one thing. It’s raw, and emotional, and hard to read at times. So you can’t just read a few pages and go back to playing with your children. Your mind will stay on the subject you read about. You will think of your own children (especially if they’re girls) in the same situation and shudder.

It’s also a needed book. The plight of girls around the world has been hidden for too long. Eve Ensler subtitled her book well by calling it The Secret Life of Girls Around the World.

Eve Ensler is also the founder of V-Day:

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery. 

Vgirls is a sub-website of V-Day just for girls. When you click that link you will be taken to the website but first it shows a special presentation that covers exactly what the book is about. I suggest if you have any interest in this book at all that you click the link and check out the beautiful presentation. It’s a bit long but it’s AWESOME! All the words in the presentation are from the book.

Related Links: You can view a large portion of this book online at Google Books, V-Day.Org on Twitter, Eve Ensler Bio,

Other Reviews: Reading Rocks,

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About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.