A practical compass for adolescents to use in navigating life’s tricky areas.
Pediatric pulmonary physician Anbar takes a holistic approach to encouraging teens to get their minds and bodies to work together for better well-being.
The book is divided into five parts, covering effective strategies for daily life, managing anxiety and other emotional challenges, making improvements to physical health, building healthy relationships, and achieving success across many different areas of life. Within each section, the individual chapters discuss the issue at hand, provide tools that readers can use, offer firsthand accounts from other teens (“Being aware of the power of words helps me find the right things to say—and it also helps me process what other people say”), and advise parents and caregivers. The author presents fear and anxiety as part of our natural survival instincts, which can be harnessed in positive ways using tips from the book. A list entitled “Nine Signs You Are Ready for Responsibility” is also valuable and will apply to many circumstances. Throughout, Anbar breaks his guidance into steps and offers clear, meaningful examples. Some of the tips and tools build upon one another, but the book is designed to be accessible to those who dip into it rather than read it cover to cover. The discussions of spirituality, gender, sexuality, and relationships are inclusive. Static spot art occasionally punctuates the text.
A practical compass for adolescents to use in navigating life’s tricky areas. (notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781538191415
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change.
Testa’s connection to and respect for nature compelled her to begin championing animal causes at the age of 10, and this desire to have an impact later propelled her to dedicate her life to fighting plastic pollution. Starting with the history of plastic and how it’s produced, Testa acknowledges the benefits of plastics for humanity but also the many ways it harms our planet. Instead of relying on recycling—which is both insufficient and ineffective—she urges readers to follow two additional R’s: “refuse” and “raise awareness.” Readers are encouraged to do their part, starting with small things like refusing to use plastic straws and water bottles and eventually working up to using their voices to influence business and policy change. In the process, she highlights other youth advocates working toward the same cause. Short chapters include personal examples, such as observations of plastic pollution in Mauritius, her maternal grandparents’ birthplace. Testa makes her case not only against plastic pollution, but also for the work she’s done, resulting in something of a college-admissions–essay tone. Nevertheless, the first-person accounts paired with science will have an impact on readers. Unfortunately, no sources are cited and the lack of backmatter is a missed opportunity.
Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change. (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22333-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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