Are the Greek tragedies a cure for troubled teens? Or do they show a different path for them?
923016
I read this book while caring for my husband. He fell and was on bed rest. So, late at night, I could sneak  a chapter or more
of this moving book. With the title "the furies" I didn't know which way this book would play out. How surprised was I with this tale!
  A teacher, who was formerly an actress, takes on a taunting task. She accepts teaching a group of teenagers, who have been
expelled from school throughout the city. Her task is to teach drama to troubled teens. As She finds out, this task is too much for her.
  But there is a shred of hope. She uses the timeless Greek tragedies as a way to reach them. This seems to be the key for her
students, to feel and open themselves up to her. A unique relationship begins to develop between a teacher and  her students.
Perhaps her former acting abilities help this Greek tragedies come alive to them.
  Did this teacher find the missing key to reach these troubled teenagers? Has she really turned them to open doors left
better closed? Only time and this book knows the results.
1817604
As a 27-year English teacher, I find "Ordinary People to be a highly thought provoking novel which has a strong impact on young readers. It's "tough stuff," not a particularly easy read, both because of its style and its content. But it grabs its readers in  the way good lit should: the characters matter to us, we care what happens to them, and we can see bits of ourselves in all of them. So many "teen problems" books take the easy way out, sentimentalizing the serious. OP never does that! Does it glorify suicide (the censors' simple response)? Of course not! Who, in any frame of mind, would want to go through the hell Conrad does? What it DOES say is that there are ways to work one's way through the deepest pain without suicide. That's a critical message to today's teens.
3470977
John Lamb cleverly adapts the star cluster, PLEIADES (relating to the 7 sister Greek mythology), to a modern day scenario whereby 7 women form a support group to cope with their like personal tragedies of having lost a child.  With lyrical prose and much insight, he depicts the despair and eventual transformation to a more livable acceptance of each woman's loss.  This is a helpful read for anybody who has suffered an untimely loss of a loved one, and especially for those who might disparage support groups.
4784267
I am a school psychologist and so far have had positive responses with kids.  This is a wonderful application of ACT geared towards teens.  I found the book applicable, using real stories that my kids really related to.  The book also uses a metaphor of a peaceful warrior, that works well with teens.  The book uses empowering language that helps teens take responsibility for there own life. Offers effective strategies for managing difficult emotions.
907875
If your teen reader seeks a story that will tug at them emotionally without the details associated with acts of violence nor the profanity, this may be the story for them. It is estimated that one out of three girls, and one out of four boys, in America will suffer sexual abuse by age 16. It can serve as a good discussion group story amongst teens, or parents with their teens. Most likely they are acquainted with (and probably know well) one or more teens who have suffered some abuse. Correlations can be drawn from the story, particularly the ongoing emotional trauma suffered by Nan, and their peers. Christian youth ministries are encouraged to form book clubs as one of the bonding activities for their members, and a story such as this would be a good choice of story. Nicely done! See our website for our criteria review.
4092041
Thank you for a book of hope and a way to turn to the light.
 I have met men like JAMES , who have experienced these issues. With people who care and give them HOPE some are finally getting therapy to aid in recovery from these traumatic experiences.
3076183
This book is one of a series of books by the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative founded by The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. It's goal is to inform young people about the scientific research and treatment of common mental disorders including schizophrenia. Dr. Patrick Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania states in the forward that the book is aimed at adolescents who are struggling.

Kurt Snyder, the author of this volume, tells his story of developing and recovering from schizophrenia and does so from multiple points of view. It is his story but he does not ignore the fact that there are millions of people in the US (and elsewhere) who are also faced with this challenge. Like many with schizophrenia, he initially refused to take his medications and mixes his personal account with the big picture. While hospitalization is a not too pleasant experience for anyone, he points out that there may be times when it is required and lists the positive benefits to be achieved from being in hospital.

What he does emphasize on P 89 is that schizophrenia is a very treatable disease. The fact that Kurt was on medication for six years at the time of writing and was able to put his life back together again, should serve as a positive example for adolescents or anyone struggling with this issue. What is also important is that he reports that side effects of prescribed drugs have been infrequent. That is often one reason that people refuse to take what is prescribed.

My only complaint is that the title is too close to the film Me, Myself and Irene which presents the old myth about schizophrenia as being multiple personalities. A companion piece to this book might be the DVD&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Cutting-For-Stone/dp/B001FWY09Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Cutting For Stone</a>&nbsp;which presents a realistic view of an adolescent's descent into schizophrenia and its impact on him and his family.

Marvin Ross
Author of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Schizophrenia-Medicine-s-Mystery-Society-s-Shame/dp/0981003702/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame</a>
2406631
The raw emotion and hurt shared are necessary, the level of hurt was sometimes hard to read.  We need to hear more people sharing their journey to overcome abuse.  This would be good read for someone trying to understand teenagers.
2648294
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a heartfelt, emotional book concerning the issue of teen suicide. I decided to read this book because it has been made into a Netflix series. Suicide is also a serious issue and I wanted to understand the harmful effects of it and I thought reading this book would help. This book ended up being mostly what I expected, besides a few things. The emotional aspect of it was what I expected (I cried), however the main character, Hannah Baker, was different than I thought. She was much more affected by small acts of bullying that I would not expect her to be affected by. This showed the extent to which people should never bully one another, no matter what the situation is, because it could result in tragedy. I did not have any personal connections besides the fact that I am a high school student and bullying is most prevalent in high schools. The idea of suicide is a very touchy subject and I believe by writing about it, Asher touched a lot of people across the world. Many people deal with the idea of killing themselves and Asher was very smart in the sense that he brought awareness to it. I think this book is mostly meant for teens in high school because all of the characters are in high school and many of the issues that are brought up in the book happen in high schools.
1677628
Although this is a riff on "Romeo and Juliet", it's more a classical tragedy- to my mind- than that is.

The hallmark of a classical tragedy, I think, is how inevitable the ending-in-tears is. R&J by that definition, seems more arbitrary, and has at least as much to do with bad teen-aged choices as classic inevitable woe.

WSS, though- that's really inevitable, both because of the set-up and how people react to events. For me, that makes it more heartbreaking.

I think it is additionally tragic that I can think of a whole number of societies in which this could be set, here and now; I would have hoped that we'd all have become more open-minded and tolerant... but we have not.

Highly recommended- both for great music and dance, and also if you want to think.
1739903
Natural and/or man-made catastrophes and trauma occur every single day all over the world.  Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to Healing and Recovery, edited by: Wendy N. Zubenko and Joseph A Capozzoli, provides readers practical examples and ideas based on theoretical principles about what to do to help children, adolescents, and adults cope with traumatic events in a healthy manner and normalize their experiences.  The book is a compilation of various professionals and disaster mental health (DMH) experts providing specific and useful material that can be utilized not only by all those involved with children such as parents, teachers, administrators, but moreover for psychologists, counselors, and relief workers aiding children immediately after a traumatic event.  Many of the authors draw from personal experience in dealing with children and adolescents that have encountered various sorts of loss, grief, and/or bereavement and each chapter provides readers detailed developmentally-appropriate intervention techniques to help youngsters handle and survive the trauma
2852373
A well-written, albeit truly disturbing, account of a young teen struggling to make sense of life, who is torn away from everything he knows, and thrust into a world of control and suppression. In this book, Zack begins a tale of a mostly-typical teenager, bored and frustrated by the daily grind, as most teenagers are, who finds himself in an institution that tries to break his will and bury anything he knows about himself. The first-person account of his struggles and his attempt to make any sense of what's going on is heartbreaking, and sheds a bright light on organizations like CEDU and the entire troubled teen industry. A must-read for all parents, regardless of whether their teen is "troubled," but especially for those who may consider this type of drastic action. If more people like Zack can find the strength to come forward and tell their stories, places like this can cease to exist entirely, and we can begin to hold our teens and care for them with love and not the breaking of the spirit. I've already pre-ordered the next installment, Overwritten!
4782848
As a parent of teen boys and a mother who has always been interested in the cause of bullying and wishing for easy solutions to end it, I was curious what Brazelon had to say on the subject.

Brazelon's writing style drew me in, weaving stories with facts and ideas then back to the teen's stories, using storytelling techniques made for more entertaining and engaging reading than the typical dry professional nonfiction book. Centering on a few teen's stories rather than speaking in vague abstracts was a way to help the reader realize that the social lives of teens is a complicated mess. She explains what bullying is and how nowadays the word bullying is overused, misused and abused. However a bigger challenge is perception; what one teen thinks is ineffective jabbing the victim may perceive as terrible bullying abuse.

In a utopia there would be no bullying and everyone would have high levels of tolerance for everyone else, everything from their looks to their ethnicity to their sexual orientation. That is not the world we live in though. Brazelon shows here that adults are guilty of thinking that the gay effeminate flamboyant teen boy asked for trouble by wearing makeup, as if being gay had not already made him enough of a target. If adults whose careers revolve around educating and protecting students while they have charge of them choose to not use tolerance or to make bad decisions that hurt students, how can we expect children and teens to all agree on what decent treatment of each other is and to actually do the best thing in every single communication and interaction in school, on the bus, and on social media?

I appreciated the exploration of mental illness and its impact on bullying. Should the bully be blamed for a suicide if the suicidal tendencies and attempts were made before the teen even lived in the same country as their supposed perpetrator?

Brazelon also explores the world of cyberbullying and how online social media is much more invasive and unforgiving compared to regular old face to face bullying as done in the previous generation. She asks good questions about the role of the parent and the role of the school in policing and monitoring social media communications.

I applaud Brazelon's attempt to analyze this complex situation and to try to suggest a solution. She does give two examples of anti-bullying programs that have had various degrees of success. We should not be surprised to learn that the programs are only as effective as the adults who administer them. Laziness or slacking efforts will not show effective results.

The best message in this book is that social lives are complicated and that people do have different ideas about what is right and wrong. This includes the notion that a victim may "have it coming". As long as there are different cultural and religious beliefs there will always be judgment and peer to peer attempts to get the outlier to step back into the perceived norm.

I rate this book 4 stars = I Like It because there were some spots of boredom and I don't agree with everything she said, and I'm not as hopeful as she seems to be that an end to bullying nationwide will ever happen. It's been happening for thousands of years and it takes a lot to stop it. A program in school is not enough because kids live in a real world where they interact with others who may not be at their school, kids who are Scouts and do a sport or dance or take music lessons or see their cousins or (fill in the blank). Brazelon puts too much emphasis on schools being the cure-all. For one thing, it is hard for a kid to go against their own parents, where an empathy promoting anti-bullying campaign can fail is when it clashes against the kid's own family's religion or cultural beliefs.
2307147
It may not be helpful for students with significant emotional issues. Distress relating to speech disorders is not addressed.
I'm not sure this would hold the attention of classmates of a child with speech disorder; lots of discussion on the specifics of Speech class.
4281915
It was sad, but there was at least some hope.  Eating disorders are incredibly hard to overcome, and they don't get nearly the attention other disorders do.  The pain these women live with on a daily basis, while still being unable to find recovery, is overwhelming.  This show should be required watching for parents and schools.  So many people think eating disorders are a voluntary behavior. This documentary shows very clearly that they are not. Left untreated, people die.
4221648
Hidden Gem recommendation, Beneath the Skin. Adolescence may very well be the most difficult time in anyones life...as you are no longer a child, but you are definitely not a mature adult. A teen who is experiencing abuse, especially sexual abuse has an even harder time. Often these situations involve close relatives and many times are secret generational cycles whose chain must be brought to light and dealt with to be broken. Adolescence is a time many feel the most insecure about themselves and often treat others terribly because they feel so bad about themselves...the mob mentality may take over, feeding off each other to make themselves feel better. There are some who are just too scared to speak out and go against the mob. This is a painfully, raw story, very well written. It does not feel good, but it definitel makes one feel! Hopefully, this book may touch the right hearts and help some one recognize what is transpiring and break cycles, change behaviors and aid to the path of healing.
4469982
ESCAPE THEORY has a familiar setting at an upscale prep school but in coastal California (near Santa Cruz) rather than New England.  The story is mostly seen through the eyes of Devon a sixteen year old scholarship student at the school and daughter of a single mother.  At the beginning of her junior year the entire school is rocked when a popular student dies of a drug overdose.  Was is suicide as is first believed or murder?  In a quite unlikely plot device sixteen year old Devon has been trained as a peer counselor and through this school sanctioned role interviews needy students many who are having trouble getting over their classmate's death.  Through her counseling duties she uncovers hidden facts related to the death that help her find  the tragic truth.  I'll admit I didn't figure out the resolution until it was revealed and I still find the culprit and motive pretty unbelievable.  The book has some edgy language as well as lots of careless teen activity that many adults may find troubling in a book targeted at young adult readers.