Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine by Ray Kurzweil

Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine Reviews

• 
  Kevin Richards

  Wish it were better, at times it feels as if it were sponsored by apple, at other times it reads like a collection of superficial 'rescuer' fantasies of the priveleged, a fantasy filled with irrational optimism that doesn't attempt to differentiate symptom from underlying cause. Think I need to return to Candide or Zadig to counterbalance the cheery boredom offered here. I thought the reference section useful in it's direction towards other sources. I'm guessing the book was intended for children.
• 
  Elise Taylor

  I don't write book reviews often, but woo, buddy, buckle up.
  
  Let me preface this by saying that I'm a social scientist by training. I teach undergrads about the social structures and invisible hierarchies that affect the world, so -- of course -- I see them in writing too, and I found this book to be full of privilege, sexism, racism, and a shocking amount of anti-woman attitudes considering that it was written with an extreme "pro girl" slant. Let's jump in.
  
  1. The book begins with the narrator, Danielle's older sister, being rescued from the 2010 Haitian earthquake at 7 years old. Her mom died in the quake, and she's adopted by the Rich White Parents ™. The only mention of the deep trauma this child would have faced comes later on when it's briefly mentioned she's scared of earthquakes. No mention whatsoever of how Rich White Parents ™ would have been allowed to adopt her. Did they kidnap her? What about her other family? What about the difficulties that she would have had fitting into Californian society? Nope.
  
  2. We quickly discover that the reason there's no character development of her is because her only real role is to serve as narrator, Danielle's assistant, and -- later -- as an additional vehicle for the author's backwards views on sexuality. Did she even have a name? She's the narrator, but it was so inconsequential to the book that I don't remember it.
  
  3. We're left to assume that Rich White Parents ™ must be absolutely loaded. Dad decides to start a school, among other things. We'll also discover throughout the book that somehow Danielle has access to ridiculously large amounts of money and can buy international plane tickets at the drop of a hat, pay for industrial sanitizing water machines, etc. Theme 1 of this book is "There is nothing a well-meaning white person can't do with enough money."
  
  
  4. Danielle is born, and quickly advances to booking her own cross-country flights to go to protests at age 5. Parents are briefly concerned, but Danielle alleviates their worry by explaining unaccompanied minor procedures and that she'll be received by her aunt. I might be able to believe that her parents would let her go, but I definitely can't believe that they'd let her go only with her sister (who is 10, by this point).
  
  Now, I'm going to summarize vast expanses of this book because rehashing it in detail will just raise my blood pressure. Here are some of Danielle's accomplishments:
  
  Age 6: Solves water scarcity in Zambia
  Age 7: Diagnoses and cures a friend of Rift Valley Fever. Also makes her debut at the Country Music Awards
  Age 8: Does some coding that transforms the music industry. Becomes CEO of her own music company and nonprofit (creatively named "Danielle Music" and "Danielle," respectively)
  Age 10: Takes down Qadaffi and restores representative democracy in Libya.
  Age 11: Is approached by the King of Saudi Arabia to help bring peace to Saudi. Does so. Thankfully, we all know that Saudi Arabia is famously accepting of Jewish white American pre-teen girls, so this makes perfect sense. Also brings peace to the middle east.
  Age 12: Cures cancer
  
  She has a bit of a harder time making China into a democracy, but manages it and gets elected Head of the Chinese Communist Party, which she disbands, then is elected President of China. While she's doing that (I think she's 18 at this point?), the US passes a constitutional amendment to allow her to become President of the United States. Somewhere along the way, she also manages to win three Nobel Prizes (Peace, Medicine, Physics).
  
  I get that it's an allegory, so let's get to some of the particularly problematic pieces:
  
  1. Thank Goodness for Rich White Parents ™ Its front cover literally says that it has a companion edition "How you, too, can be a Danielle!" As I mentioned, it would be difficult or impossible for an average kid/human/adult to "be a Danielle" without the benefit of Rich White Parents ™. Realistically, these parents would have been investigated by child protective services for their raising (or lack thereof) of this child.
  
  2. Weird chastity/purity stuff: Despite the book seeming to be very pro-girl power, anti-female genital mutilation (yeah, that comes up), and so forth, both Danielle and her older sister take vows of chastity before marriage. Both of them marry before they're 25 to men they met as children. Where is the women's liberation? Where is the bodily autonomy?
  
  3. Did I mention the pedophilia? Why is it only passingly mentioned that it's kind of creepy that Danielle's boyfriend is 17 when she's 12? They agree not to marry until she's 21, but it's really really creepy that a senior in high school would have the hots for a middle schooler at all. Later on, she goes on a date at age 16 with someone who is easily twice her age. Are all the men in this book ephebophiles?
  
  4. Racism: As I mentioned, the narrator/big sister is Haitian. Although her own accomplishments are alluded to, her main role is to narrate the story of Danielle. Her cultural identity is effectively erased. What was her name again?
  
  5. More Racism: When she becomes president, they mention Harrison's election and the catchphrase of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" and explicitly say it doesn't mean anything, it was just "a song." Umm...I can assure you it was a reference to
  Harrison murdering a whole bunch of Native Americans in Indiana and stealing their land. But don't worry, Danielle is saving China, she's not concerned about murdered Indigenous Americans, murdered Black Americans, police violence, anti-Seminitism, or any of the other social ills of America. She's pro-immigration, at least?
  
  5. Mental Health Whuuut Danielle has regular panic attacks throughout then book, starting at age 2. Nobody seems to care. Even the sister/narrator is like,"Well, sometimes I have to snuggle her so she feels better." So...you have infinite amounts of money, but no ability or give-a-shit about your kid's mental health? Awesome.
  
  6. Learn to code!!! I only read the first little bit of the companion book, but it begins with "If you want to be like Danielle, you have to learn to code!" Again, it's a big ole F-you to anyone who doesn't have the time, money, or energy to devote to learning to code. Also, there are a lot of people who know how to code and are good humans who want to do good things...but I don't see anyone doing even two of the ideas in the book. It's almost as if.....there's a whole lot of privilege up in here.
  
  I hated this book. Passionately. Enough that I have now spent the better part of an hour writing 1100 words about how much I disliked it. If you decide to read it, I would suggest that you read it with a critical eye or just avoid it altogether.
  
  One funny thing, though: I listened to the audiobook. Most of the time, when the narrator said the word "Rabbi," she pronounced it correctly (Rab-eye). A couple of times, she said "Rab-eeee." The only thing I can think is that perhaps she deliberately mispronounced it when the editors weren't listening because she understood how ridiculous it was that a child would be in charge of any variety of Middle Eastern peace talks.
• 
  Brandie

  ***Received from a Goodreads Giveaway***
  
  Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine is a story of a precocious child who accomplishes more before age 10 than most people do their entire lives. The story, told in first-person by Danielle's older sister Claire, begins before Danielle is born and ends when Danielle turns twenty-two, is president of the USA, and she gets married on the White House lawn. This makes it sound like a happily-ever-after style fairytale, but to the author's credit, he is not saying that a woman's aspirations are through once she marries, it is just another step that she can choose to do or not and still run a country or do whatever she wants to do in life. (In addition, some villain nukes Ohio on her wedding day and so the story continues on in some form.) Danielle is meant to be an inspirational character to women and girls to change the world for the better. She’s an idealist figure that few, if any, can live up to with maybe the exception of Martine Rothblatt. Rothblatt was one of the more interesting additions to the companion book, also a personal friend of the author who makes appearances in the book as Danielle’s mentor (Rothblatt is a real superheroine). Kurzweil doesn’t expect anyone to live up to Danielle only to be inspired to try. 
  
  The writing is rather plain and simple, aimed at a younger audience, but the length of the novel is more than what would keep the attention of said audience at 250+ pages, with the additional pages of How You Can Be a Danielle attached making for a total of 460+ pages (not including the companion book). I found it boring at times and started skimming it pretty early on.
  
  The companion book, A Chronicle of Ideas: A Guide for Superheroines (and Superheroes) is a 400+ page door-stopper. Kurzweil would have served his readers better and played better into his worldview of a future cyberconsciousness if he’d created an interactive app or website that did the same thing and in a better and entertaining way. It’s also awkward trying to read the main book and refer to the companion book when needed. Some entries are interesting but most are glorified footnotes akin to encyclopedia entries with some small asides to Danielle’s story. I understand an app would have cost money, but a very simple one could not have been more than the printing, etc. fees.
  
  Overall, I get what Kurzweil was trying to do and it is an admirable endeavor but it could have used a few tweaks. For example: 1) Danielle has some flaws but they are minor and superficial so it makes it hard to connect with the character. 2) The book is aimed at a young audience and/or their caregivers/teachers and it is too long for them. It should have been broken down into several smaller books. More of a collection of Danielle's Adventures with each volume having Danielle and Claire confronted by a dilemma /task/world problem and finding a solution then having a section about what we can do in the real world to help and a section with an exercise on something small that we can do right now as a class/group/individual activity. 3) I like the area on How You Can Be a Danielle with links on where to start on different topics Danielle works on from starting your own business to fighting various world problems. But, I do wish it wasn't just examples and links to other sites to get you started but also had exercises or something from the author on a small step we can do now around your home, classroom, or in the surrounding community (a little kickstart to thinking and doing).
  
  Ray Kurzweil is a superhero in real life, too. He's an inventor, writer, thinker, doer, Grammy Award winner (<--Yup, you read that right!), scientist, etc. He believes we can do great things in this world and make it a better place. He wrote this book and it's companion books to inspire others to go out into the world and make it better. A great ambition and one I wholly support. The book, though, has some issues and could use some rethinking.
• 
  Mantvydas Juozapavicius

  Knyga paaugliams. Pati pasaka visai nebloga, bet gal šiek tiek perspausta su pagrindinės veikėjos supergaliomis. Be to, nepatiko, kad knygoje, nors ir deklaruojamos visos demokratinės verrybės, tačiau propaguojama labai ydinga praktika - įstatymų keitimas (ir jų nesilaikymas), pritaikant juos vienam žmogui. Vistik, prieš įstatymus turi būti lygūs visi, net ir superherojai.
  Tikrai vertingas yra knygos priedas. Nors dauguma nuorodų skirtos amerikiečiams, bet visi kiti irgi ras ką nors sau naudingo.
• 
  Diana

  Way too didactic. Either write fiction or non — this mishmash is unreadable and pandering
• 
  Ron Me

  A nice inspirational books (for both boys and girls), perhaps a project someone would like to take on is to get a copy into every school library. If you read this @Ray Kurzweil, I think some of your ideas are a little off, some are solving effects rather than causes, and some are spot on: If you want to contact me I can help you with many of these.
• 
  Andrew Abruzzese

  I knew there was a reason I’d been interested in this book.
  
  By the time I got through some of the material in the “how to” section, I began to be energized by the possibilities of learning new skills, improving myself, and hopefully making some positive contributions. These are things that I really value, and I find that sometimes the most time-consuming piece can be figuring out where to start. So it’s quite a gift to have a compilation free and low-cost resources for learning valuable skills.
  
  I drifted pretty far from having any clear sense of this as a purpose of this book during its first part, a novel preternaturally (so much so it is scarcely believable) intelligent and capable young woman who embarks on a career solving the world’s most urgent and vexing problems at an age at which most people are just learning to read. Danielle is elected president of two different global superpowers by age 20, and that’s far from the least believable part of the narrative. All too often, to me, Danielle “solves” problems with solutions so facile it threatens to undermine the message of the book, while rendering the narrative somewhat less than compelling.
  
  The point at which I first decided that enough was too much was when Danielle (at age 13) takes on the conflict over the status of Tibet. She has one meeting with the Dalai Lama in which she offers him no reason to change his position other than that “the reality of the Han majority cannot be ignored,” proposes a form of autonomy short of independence, and the next thing you know, “disappointed by the discord among his own ranks, the Dalai Lama surprised the world by… dropping his advocacy of autonomy.” As if the Dalai Lama were unaware of some basic facts of the situation and the only thing needed to solve the problem was for someone to explain it.
  Another example of an intractable problem made to seem trivially simple is the US budget impasse, which Danielle solves to everyone’s satisfaction by “closing (unspecified) exceptions and loopholes.” Closing loopholes is exactly the kind of solution that enjoys broad bipartisan support right up to the minute you begin specifying which loopholes will be closed, which is why this ostensibly obvious solution has not actually solved the problems with the US budget process, and shutdowns and continuing resolutions have become standard operating procedure.
  
  These examples are part of a pattern in the narrative in which problems are “solved” when parties to the conflict magically and inexplicably accept a compromise they have long rejected. Once you reach the “how to” section, it does become clear that the author understands to some extent why large problems are vexing and that solutions may sometimes look like long, slow, incremental progress rather than spectacular breakthroughs. Indeed, a lot of the things “you can do” (learn to code, form a group, post on social media, fund-raise for organizations) are repeated for each problem, and are recipes for incremental progress. It’s great to have a volume of resources collected together in one place, and I plan to take advantage of some of them. It’s great to be energized too, but unrealistic expectations can sometimes be injurious to motivation, as unrealistic solutions injure a narrative.
  
• 
  Peter Backx

  Danielle is a book about Danielle. Danielle is a true child prodigy. Curing cancer at age 4 and bringing peace to the middle east only a few years later, are just some of her accomplishments. She is indeed a true superheroine.
  
  The story itself is just a way for mister Kurzweil to explain his ideas on how children should be taught and what they can do to improve the world.
  
  This is a difficult review to write. I adore the ideas in the book, but I am absolutely not a fan of the way they are represented.
  
  Although Danielle is a superheroine, the story is just too incredible to believe. And the chapters are too short to really connect with the characters. The China story was the exception and was quite interesting and engaging to read.
  
  The "complete" edition that I read also features a printed version of the resources section that can be found on the Danielle site. It's basically a very long list of link-posts. Well-written, but you can't click the links in the book, so I feel it's not that useful.
  
  Overall, it's an ok book, but I don't really recommend it.
• 
  Nick Traynor

  I love Ray Kurzweil for his optimism and his insight into technology. In this book he has more of a social agenda into improving the lives of people in developing countries and women in particular. Of course, this is all with the intention of enabling people to contribute to technological development, but it is still a noble goal.
  
  The fictional story of Danielle was a far-fetched and, at times, silly one, however it is imbued with Ray's philosophy of ideas as solutions to all our problems. There is something exciting about that. I enjoyed the companion book How You Can Be A Danielle, which was included in my hard-cover edition, because it offered dozens of pieces of detailed and practical advice (especially for young people) as to how they can make a disproportionate difference in the world.
  
  Ray's beliefs in the fundamental goodness of people and their ability to solve the world's problems is inspiring.
• 
  Derek Moore

  I feel that I am in a very unique position for this book review. For the very first time, I am unable to submit a review for Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine by Ray Kurzweil as the book(s) JUST ARRIVED via Fed Ex sometime between midnight and 8am. I apologize but I feel I would need more time than one day to give a decent review. Somewhere there must have been some sort of mix-up with the delivery as this is the first time I've ever received books via Fed-Ex. Please inform me if you'd like me to submit a review once I've had the opportunity to read them as there was a second book sent along with this one. Once again, my sincerest apologies.
  
  
• 
  ReadingMama

  This was a charming but unrealistic story of a precocious girl who uses her intelligence and technologies to solve the world’s biggest problems. On the other hand, it also provides numerous practical ways of how we can be like Danielle by introducing to many organizations and how to be involved, so we can turn ideas into real world problems. Positive and encouraging, I appreciate how Ray and his daughter are encouraging the future generation to be smart and be kind, so we all can help out humanity~
  
  Ray Kurzweil is a futurist with many revolutionary ideas and wrote two books 1) Singularity is near and 2) How to create a mind, which is in my next reading list!
• 
  Sam

  A guide for 21st-century tiger families. Kurzweil documents the development and adventures of aspiring Danielle, who not only wants to save the world, but seems equipped to do so. Stanford not required.
  
  Would be nice if the 2 companion books were combined into a single Kindle document, for faster referencing.
  
  The 2 companion books can be read online for free:
  https://danielleworld.com/a-chronicle...
• 
  William Crosby

  Many ideas, though the political ones seemed less realistic. However, the 2nd part of the books has a set of more realistic guidelines and suggestions. Note that Danielle is only a vehicle for sharing ideas and you will be disappointed if you are wanting a coherent plot and development of characters.
  
  Delightful illustrations (Danielle also looks rather like the illustrator).
  
  Many funny and insightful moments and has lines such as,
  "She [Danielle] told people the flower bed was a subroutine for factorials."
  
  
• 
  Danielle Urban

  I saw the cover of this book and was interested in what it had to say. My name is on the book. I thought: why not read it? So, I did. This book may not seem realistic and believable. But then again, its tales were told to inspire girls to be the best they can be. It showed themes of improving oneself, friendship, kindness and etc. This book also encourages women to be brave and creative.
  
  I received this copy from the publisher. This is my voluntary review.
• 
  Dustan Woodhouse

  It’s fiction, but rooted in non-fiction possibilities.
  
  It was entertaining and educational at the same time.
  
  It was light reading, but also touched on some deep issues that out society is facing, and will soon face with the advancements in tech.
  
  Well worth the time invested as a summer read for sure.
• 
  Danielle

  DNF at 27%
  
  I tried with this book. I tried so hard. But this book was so out there for me I had a hard time connecting with the characters. What parent let’s an 8 year old and a teenager run off to a village in Africa for two months? I know this book was designed to be a superheroine type situation but it just didn’t work for me.
• 
  Thomas Van Holder

  The best way to make a point is to tell a story, Ray has figured that out perfectly. Fun to read with inspiring intentional examples The companion book is a handy practical guide on how to take your own life in your own hands and be part of an exciting future.
• 
  Adam Wenham

  Generally inspiring. Somewhat unbelievable story. The second half of the book is about you can be a Danielle in your own small way. Reminds me that I could be doing more with my life and more for others.
• 
  Csimplot Simplot

  Excellent book!
• 
  Janet

  This was a fun book of a girl can do great things in life. Great to read to a young. Audience. This was a Goodreads giveaway winner.
• 
  Daniella

  It was inspirational but made me hate who I was because I hadn't done what she had. Not the book's fault but I just did not like it.
• 
  Kourtney

  It was a well written story and loved it