Big news in the world of Girls Guild!

Since starting a few months ago, this site has gotten terrific internet traffic from all over the world.  For this I’ve been grateful, and it’s my hope that the material here has  inspired at least some of our visitors to continue to promote a love of books among young people.  But in all honesty, I felt that the concept of Girls Guild — the whole pretend secret society aspect — didn’t inherently provide enough activities to make the site “sticky” as us internet nerds like to say.  That is, it was clear to me that folks would check out the site, be amused by the story and secret handshakes and all, and then move on.

Well, one day while I was musing on this, a light bulb went on — and it’s embarassing that it didn’t occur to me sooner because the idea is so obvious:  Girls Guild would work perfectly as a loose confederation of secret society themed book clubs!  Since Girls Guild celebrates reading and literacy, then (duh!) the main activity of the group should be getting together to talk about what else?  Great books!

Thus the big news for the site is this:  from now on, this site will be devoted to providing the free and creative commons non-commercial licensed material to any and all who might be interested in starting a local book club for girls that has a fun secret society/atlantis theme.  Thanks for checking it out!

Girls Guild is a book club for girls (although boys can be honorary members!) with a fun secret society theme.  According to legend, the king of Atlantis created Girls Guild just after the Great Library of Atlantis sank into the sea.  To find out why, check out the the legend here.

The best part of Girls Guild is that all of the art and creative content of this site is released under a non-commercial, creative commons license, which means that if you like what you see here, you can use it to start your own Girls Guild Book Club in your area.  For more information on volunteer opportunities, check here.

The universal symbol of Girls Guild is this spiral.  Notice how the inner part of the spiral looks like a rounded capital letter G.  The outer part of the spiral looks like another larger capital letter G surrounding it. So the spiral is a G within a G. Those two letter G’s stand for the words ‘Girls Guild’.

The spiral also represents the nautilus shell that Princess Sophia used to make her discovery that the island of Atlantis was sinking.

This is the Girls Guild Secret Handshake.

To make it, hook the first four fingers of your right hand into the first four fingers of the right hand of the person shaking hands with you.  Then each thumb goes around the back of the other person’s fingers.

As you can see, the two hands form two interlocking letter G’s, each starting at the tip of the thumb as the top of the G and curling around the pointer finger for the rest.  The letter G’s stand for Girls Guild, but they also stand for the Girls Guild motto:  Be Gentle and Good.

Girls Guild has its own secret code!  It’s easy to use once you know the secret!  Check it out here.

Whenever a Girls Guilder sees someone do something awesome, the Girls Guilder can give that person an Award Card for it. The awesome thing can be a special act of kindness, or a good answer in class, or even just a thank-you for being a good friend! Every Award Card you receive earns you a point toward your Royal Rank and every card you give earns you a point toward your Royal Rank too! Ask your parent to download and print the FREE Award Cards here.

As a Girls Guilder, you are entitled to a Royal Rank. You earn rank by earning Award Card Points. Here are the Royal Ranks and the number of Award Card Points you need to achieve that rank.

1. Maid ————————– 0 to 10 Award Card Points
2. Baroness ——————— 10 to 15 Award Card Points
3. Grand Baroness ————- 16 to 20 Award Card Points
4. Countess ——————— 21 to 25 Award Card Points
5. Grand Countess ————- 26 to 30 Award Card points
6. Duchess ———————- 31 to 35 Award Card Points
7. Grand Duchess ————– 36 to 40 Award Card Points
6. Princess ———————- 41 to 50 Award Card Points
7. Queen ————————- 51 to 60 Award Card Points
8. Empress ———————- Over 60 Award Card Points

Remember, Girls Guild follows the honor system! So each Girls Guilder is in charge of honestly keeping track of her Award Card points!

Introducing the Girls Guild Coat of Arms!

Shortly after Atlantis sank thousands of years ago, the court official in charge of preventing girls from learning to read, an evil man named Caliban, formed the Caliban Society in order to keep alive his dream of a world in which only boys were taught to read.  The Caliban Society has been working toward that goal ever since.  It has many secret, evil plots to keep girls from reading.  One way it does this is to sneak into libraries and take out books that girls might enjoy.  They burn great piles of these books in their secret, evil ceremonies.  A good way to foil their plans is for Girls Guilders to check out library books so that Caliban Society members can’t get them.

The symbol of the Caliban Society is a skull sitting on top of a closed book.  The symbol represents the oath that all Calibaners should be willing to give their lives in order to keep girls from reading.