In 1911, five-year-old Florence rides in a Model T her dad buys from a door-to-door car salesman. In the 1920s, at ten Julia climbs trees in a skirt and bloomers. The '60s sees Victoria go to Woodstock at 12. In 1975, young Terri Ann flees Saigon with her Vietnamese mother and American GI father to live in rural Georgia. In a Michigan grade school, Aalaa wakes up to a new world on 9/11. These are just a few of the girls telling their personal stories of life under 13 years old in every decade of a century. An editor and memoir teacher, I collected these stories by submission and interview and present five or six of them per chapter (decade). Read about life from this unusual angle in the voices of women and girls from a diversity of races and classes, from locations as far from each other as Maine and Moloka'i. Pop culture highlights for each decade and a short cultural history of the decade start each of the ten chapters, taking you on a ride through the American story you've never had before. You'll learn about yourself, your children, your mothers and grandmothers. It's history in motion, powered by the personal. See the website for more and to submit your own story to the next book in the 100 Years in the Life series. www.100yearsinthelife.com __________ KIRKUS REVIEWS (Aug 2015) Readers inclined to take modernity for granted will find much here to surprise and interest them. There's much food for thought here, whether readers focus on a single decade or trace themes over time, such as the immigrant experience, how appliances have eased household chores, or how expectations regarding girls' dress, schooling, and careers have changed. Overall, the contributions are wonderfully lively and vivid. A useful sourcebook and an entertaining read. READER'S SAY... "I love this book Informative, fun and illuminating " - Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers "This powerful collection of personal stories weaves the American experience like I've never seen done before." - Susan Hagen, co-author of Women at Ground Zero