Scholastic has recently released two companion books: How to Survive Anything! Boys Only and How to Survive Anything! Girls Only. Of course, by “anything”, they mean shark attacks, tornadoes, quicksand and broken legs if you’re a boy, and BFF fights, breakouts and fashion disasters if you’re a girl. what are the haps breaks it down.
Excerpt:
If you ever find yourself in this situation, please oh please don’t say “THIS ONE IS FOR BOYS AND THIS IS FOR GIRLS”. Perhaps instead say “THIS ONE HAS A BUNCH OF INTERESTING REAL-LIFE DISASTER SURVIVAL AND THIS ONE HAS A LOT OF PERSONAL HYGIENE AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP STUFF IN IT, ALSO, TIPS ON GETTING YOUR CAT TO SIT DOWN, I DUNNO”.
Thanks RM.
Feminist Philosophers 
Scholastic has an odd apology, along with some acute readers’ comments here:
http://oomscholasticblog.com/2012/06/scholastic-responds-to-concerns-about-how-to-survive-anything-series.html
Of course it’s ridiculous, but it’s really more likely you’ll encounter personal hygiene and interpersonal relationship issues on a day-to-day basis! So oddly, the girl’s book sounds more useful? I think I’m more worried that they don’t think boys need to possess basic relationship abilities than that we’re failing to provide young women with earthquake survival skills.
Ryan North (author of the linked blog) suggested that they really could have rewritten the books as Survival!: Social Situations and Survival!: Outdoor Adventure and gotten the gendered stuff out without scrapping the books as a whole. That way boys could learn how to look nice and girls to survive in the wilderness without it being a big deal.
Oops, that’s the same as the blockquote. Heh, that’s what I get for skimming since I saw this a day or two ago.
Alternatively, one of the commenters on the Scholastic site Anne links above suggests combining the two tables of contents into a single book that includes both outdoor adventure cum natural disaster type survival tips and hygiene cum social survival tips, and then marketing the result to all kids. After all, we all need a bit of both kinds of advice, right?
Lady Day, thanks, btw, for a fascinating glimpse into the area!
The “for Boys” and “for Girls” books trend started with the success of Conn Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys, which Iggulden wrote as a reaction to the current culture of fear that overprotects kids and stifles the desire for independent adventure and self reliance, which he felt was particularly adversely affecting boys. It’s really a fantastic book for any kid, (though it may result in your child making a bow and shooting a rabbit) and he got a lot of heat for the “for boys” bit, but it was hugely successful. That then spawned the counterpart by another author, The Daring Book for Girls. And then came a bunch of copycat “for boys” and “for girls” books until we come to this sad, sad and hopefully last manifestation, which will hopefully end this trend.