BECKY SHER | Hype You'll flip for journal, all write

Every girl needs a private place to record all that stuff she can't tell anybody else. (Some things even your best friend just doesn't understand.) That's why we love Flip-Flop Journals (Running Press, $4.95), two cool books that give you tons of space to write down whatever's on your mind. But the twist is this: These cute books are two journals in one.
For example, pick up the School/Summer Flip-Flop Journal, and you'll find space to record anything school-related: the songs you'd put on your school-year soundtrack, the hippest slang heard in the hallways and the kid you'd name the biggest brown-noser in your class. Then, when summer finally rolls around, flip over the book and jot down tons of vacation stuff: your goals for the summer, your ideas for a summer business and your best summer memory. Or pick up the Truth/Dare version, which is pretty much just what its name implies. (And we have to admit, we'd be too chicken to take on most of the dares! Maybe you're braver.) Pick up your two-sided journal at a bookstore or online bookseller.
Cool candy
Remember the Skittles commercials that advertised "a rainbow of fruit flavors"? Well, somebody call the ad guy -- that slogan doesn't cut it anymore. Mint Skittles are the newest addition to the 21-year-old line of chewy candies, joining Original Fruits, Wild Berry, Tropical and Sour Skittles. And the new candies are pretty true to their name -- they've got the same shape and chewy texture as the originals, but with a definite mint taste. (And let's face it -- mints are in. Altoids started it, and now, it's hip to be mint.)
Choose your favorite mint variety -- spearmint or peppermint -- and pick up a pocket-sized pack for less than a dollar. And don't worry, Skittles fans, the new guys aren't monochromatic. The peppermint candies come in a range of blue hues, and the spearmints are different shades of green.
XBecky Sher writes Hype for Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. You can write to her at bsher@krtinfo.com.