(Life can be pretty tricky when you're a teenage girl.

New things matter: Clothes. Parties. Boys. Suddenly being liked and being popular don't mean the same thing. Your parents get completely bizarre when the subject of dating comes up. A friend you've had forever stabs you in the back for no good reason. Everybody you know seems to feel free to comment on your constantly changing body. Drugs and alcohol go from being what you see "bad" kids doing on television shows to what you see your friends doing when no adults are around. How are you supposed to deal?

Since life doesn't come with a set of instructions, it helps to turn to people who have been through the stuff that you're facing. Even parents can help. (Really!) In Boys Will Put You on a Pedestal (so they can look up your skirt), former teenage boy -- and current dad of two daughters -- Philip Van Munching helps guide you through some of life's most confusing topics. From Beauty to Grief, from Sex to Fate, Van Munching covers the things you most want to know about and, in his wise, warm, and funny way, offers advice on how you can become the young woman you most want to be.

Philip Van Munching sounds like a pretty cool dad. True, he?d rather his daughters steer clear of drugs and alcohol and avoid having sex until after he's dead, but he's well aware of the fact that they?re living in the real world. In Boys Will Put You on a Pedestal (so they can look up your skirt), this father of two offers practical advice to teenage girls in a series of fresh and funny chapters on everything from Fate to Faith to Boyfriends, The Internet, and How to be Happy. Consider what he has to say about Tattoos: "If you ever seriously think about getting one do yourself a favor first. Go to the drawer where you keep your T-shirts and take a good look at them. What's on them? Got any designer names or funny sayings? Or do you have T-shirts with pictures of cartoon animals? Wait, of course you don?t: you had the animal T-shirts a few years ago, but you?ve gotten rid of them. You outgrew them." To further prove his point, he suggests checking out "your folks? old high school yearbooks" for more evidence that what's cool today won?t be forever. One thing his girls can likely count on to remain constant, however, is their dad's obvious love and respect for them, as Van Munching appears infinitely curious about their current lives and the challenges they will face in the future. ?Patrick Jennings.

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