Seems like old times

For parents who have had it up to here with anti-role models Britney, Lindsay and, for a panicked Vanity Fair moment, even Hannah, it's tempting to feel buoyed by the evidence:

"Little House on the Prairie: The Musical," still in previews, already has extended its Guthrie Theater run by two weeks. Girls are buzzing at the announcement of an American Girl store opening at the Mall of America in November, and the first American Girl movie, "Kit Kittredge," which celebrates a plucky Depression-era girl who never exposed her midriff, shook her booty or belched like a pirate, earned $15 million at the box office in its first six weeks, nothing to sneeze at for an indie film opening in limited release.

The popular "Daring Book for Girls," a rapid response to the "Dangerous Book for Boys," celebrates the long-lost arts of Four Square and handwritten thank-you notes.

Chalk it all up to a return, at last, to traditional times and values, said "Daring" co-author Miriam Peskowitz. "So many people are fed up with today's options for girls and the short window for girlhood," she said. "They are looking to the past for role models and stories, but in a future-oriented way."

Similarly, Wendy Smolen, editorial director for Toy Wishes magazine, which reviews the year's hottest toys, said the growing American Girl brand enjoys "anti-Britney appeal." The doll and its back story, she said, offer "wholesome values and tap into a girl's imagination. 'This is my hero. I want to be like her.'" The phenom, she predicts, "will get bigger and bigger."

Well, maybe. All this also could be a coincidental blip on the cultural landscape that will fade faster than anyone can say iPhone. But something is going on and, in homage to the relentless spirit of budding journalist Miss Kit, we set off to find out.

At Camp Lakamaga

There are few places more fitting to measure baseline girl values than Girl Scout Camp Lakamaga, an hour's drive from the Twin Cities near Forest Lake, and just off, we kid you not, Mayberry Trail.

Here, the rec center's shelves are stacked with games including Twister, Yahtzee and Scrabble; a to-do list reminds girls to "Pick up rocks and sticks," and "Sweep the lodge."

Five scouts, ages 10 to 13, sit in the airy dining room politely answering questions about the sturm und drang of modern girlhood, when they'd probably rather be outside playing soccer. A quick accounting:

• All five have access to a home computer, including one with a laptop she must use under a parent's purview.

• Four own an American Girl doll.

• Three have read at least some of the "Little House" books.

• Three own iPods.

• Two have a Nintendo DS video-game system.

• Only one has heard of the "Daring" book.

• Not a one sends or receives communication by that strange dinosaur known as snail mail.

• They watch "That '70s Show," and "Hannah Montana," crush on R&B's Chris Brown and "High School Musical" star Zac Efron, and dish on Miley.

"Did you know she lip-syncs?" one says.

"Not anymore," says another.

Ask these articulate girls how it's going and, frankly, you won't know (DS systems aside) what generation you're in. Chores and siblings are still annoying. Pressures to fit in at school are still suffocating.

Deseray Schell, 13, will be an eighth-grader in September at Osceola Middle School in Wisconsin. Her favorite part of the "Little House" phenomenon, she said, is how the girls dressed. Deseray owns a floor-length white skirt. "When I wear it, my mom calls me Laura," she said.

Would she wear it to school?

"No!!!"

The other girls laugh at her missile-quick response. "It's not how they dress at school," Deseray said.

Cassie Dervie, 10, of North Branch, read one of the "Little House" books last year, then researched the series on the Internet. She's now a big fan of the TV show, in reruns on the Hallmark Channel, in a curious-observer sort of way.

"It was a very, very, very different life than mine," Cassie said. "She got to ride horses. She had a mom and dad that stayed at the house more often, and sisters that weren't really mean to her."

Haley Pedersen's mom, Andrea, read the "Little House" books to her when she was little. "I probably didn't pay much attention," said Haley, 12. "There was a little doll made of corn, or something." Haley said the books, while nice, wouldn't be her first choice. She prefers fantasy and fiction titles, such as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Dressing the prairie part

This isn't to say that some girls aren't going ga-ga over Melissa Gilbert and crew. Back at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, Lauren Kaiser, 9, has arrived for a preview in an authentic prairie dress, complete with rag doll. She and her mom, Genna Kaiser, 35, drove for more than an hour from their home in Sartell, Minn., to see the play.

"She watches the show a lot," Genna said of Lauren. "This was her first musical, and I grew up watching Melissa Gilbert, so I was very excited to come see her."

Josie Wulff, 10, of Brooklyn Park, arrived with her grandmother, Mary Zelinski, 66. "Our set of books were passed from my mother to me to my daughter to [Josie] -- so, four generations," Zelinski said. They have all the DVDs, too. "We've watched them many times," Zelinski said. "It's just a fabulous story, a good family story. It's good for every age."

Josie's mom used to play "Little House," turning a picnic table into a covered wagon. Now Josie, who is going into fifth grade, has seen every episode of the series and read a few of the books. "I like learning how it relates to real life and things about the past," Josie said. "It feels like I'm always there, especially here in the play. It just kind of feels like I'm there."

Modern girls, retro pastimes

Having a foot in each world sounds about right to Andrea Buchanan, co-author with Peskowitz of the Daring book, and the mother of a 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son.

The book, she said, "was about bringing a little balance" to modern girls' lives. "Girls do have Wiis, Nintendo. At 9, I wanted a canopy bed and a pony. My daughter wants an iPhone. This is the world our girls live in. There is more of a challenge: more media, more culture to assimilate and tease out, and so much of it is very appealing.

"On the other hand," she said, "there's something to be said about pastimes that girls have always had, to remember some of that, too. It's nice that sometimes they can have very solitary, creative pursuits without having to blog about it."

The slight swing back to the low-tech side isn't solely affecting girls, she noted. She sees parallels in grown-up pursuits, from the slow-food movement, to the exploding do-it-yourself market, to handmade books.

Buchanan has a ready response for feminists or others who might question just how "daring" it is to learn how to set up a lemonade stand or short-sheet beds. (And to be fair, the book offers a rich variety of activities and information, including the roots of Greek and Latin words, and profiles on fearless women in history, from scientists to Bosnian President Borjana Kristo.)

"It is daring," Buchanan said, "for a girl to be earnest about what she likes, to speak up. It is kind of daring to include a recipe in a book for girls, when we know so much about how girls are limited. It's daring to reclaim these things, this everyday daring, like raising your hand in class."

Or maybe working up the courage to walk into your middle school wearing a floor-length white skirt.

Truth is, though, Deseray and her girl pals at Camp Lakamaga don't have a thing to prove to anybody. So what if she never wears the skirt to school? She's a snowboarder ("I can't even watch," said her dad, Scott), a four-wheeler and a hunter who can blush when talking about singer Brown and dream of becoming a pro athlete.

Fellow camper Rachel Schurhamer, 10, a fourth-grader at Horace Mann Elementary School in St. Paul, loves YouTube, her DS, and "addicting games." But Rachel also helps her mom, Laura, water plants, hang clothes on the line, make dinner and do dishes.

In other words, maybe moms and dads needn't worry so much. Our girls, it seems, are making a choice -- to not make a choice. Yes, they crave TMZ gossip, their iPods and MySpace. But they like clapping games, too, and being with their parents.

Maybe they are the ones who can teach us something about having the best of both worlds.

"A girl," Buchanan agrees, "doesn't have to choose to be sparkly or daring. She can be both. She can be a budding technology geek, who also plays soccer. The world is a big place," she said, "and girls have a place in it."

Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350 Staff writer Patrick Lee contributed to this report.