Girls, are you thinking about what you want to be when you grow up? Or do you already know? Either way, the COOL CAREERS FOR GIRLS series may be just what you're looking for. These books will guide you toward the direction you want your life to take. In addition to careers in crime solving and environmentalism, the series includes books on careers in computers, sports, health, engineering, food, construction, performing arts, air and space, law, and with animals. Somewhere in there may be the dream job just for you.

Each book profiles several women who work in one aspect or another of the chosen field. For example, in crime solving, would you like to run a forensic science lab, starting out at $60,000 a year? Or maybe you could be the expert who recovers crime evidence from computer systems. You could analyze blood spatters, or examine and document wounds on dead bodies to determine cause of death. What about reconstructing whole identities from just a skull or a bone, then helping the police determine how that person died? This is forensic anthropology, and you can earn up to $55,000 a year if you choose that career direction.

As an environmentalist, you can work in wastewater treatment, be an advocate against nuclear power, or take care of wild wolves. You can travel the world's forests to study them. You can choose a career in ethnobotany, learning the different plants that exist around the world and how people use them. Or you can manage an organic farm where people can grow their own food and where disabled people can be trained in horticulture and then helped to find jobs.

Throughout the books are guidelines to salary you can expect, physical and mental skills you'll need, and educational training you should pursue. There are lists of books you can read --- fiction, nonfiction, biographies, and references. There are Web sites you can study, as well as professional organizations that can provide you with more information. Some organizations exist especially for young people, so you can join them now.

This series will show you all the jobs that exist which you may never have imagined, and the career fields where your particular mix of personality, skills, interests, and abilities will match the job requirements. It shows you how women already working in these fields trained themselves specifically for their jobs or even just stumbled into something that they love to do. It tells you what a typical day in each job is like, and it points you toward getting all the information that you need to pursue as many directions as you want before you settle down on the one that is perfect for you. There is nothing like preparing yourself now for the rest of your life, and these books will give you all the information you need to begin doing that.

   --- Reviewed by Tamara Penny