Review: Don't drown in Junior High - get this book to learn to swim with the sharks!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 17, 2012
Author Katz covers the things that can and cannot be changed, factors that affect self-esteem, and very real issues that help identify and build strengths. She includes exercises that effectively and efficiently drill down to the source of what really needs to be addressed. Not all Junior High aged teens will have the patience to work through the questions and analysis of the exercises, but then isn't that the nature of change? If you want to be a better person, you have to take on the work to do what it takes. Even among adults, not everyone has the courage to make the effort to make positive changes so that life will be better. A really cool part of the identification portion of the book are the fill-in-the-blank questions that are similar to a journal and help gain clarity about who/where you are and who/where you want to be. In Junior High, it is probably much easier to give answers about what your weaknesses are, but answers regarding your strengths may be scarce. Orly Katz gives the reader some excellent questions and exercises, along with fabulous illustrations, to get at the essence of your strengths and your weaknesses will pale by comparison. Take all these elements and weave in some grounded, to the point stories from the author's personal life, and you have a very effective tool for not only surviving Junior High, but getting to the other side with excellence.