Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends--and a lot of familiar faces--in the course of Dear Teen Me.
Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves http://www.yabookscentral.com/media/reviews/photos/thumbnail/200x285s/26/de/29/_12479640-1348239436.jpg Featured
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Some teasers:
Ilsa J. Bick's 'The Knife' recollects the time when the author found a knife hidden that gave her a hint behind the secrets her father hid from her. From this experience she grows stronger.
Ellen Hopkins' 'Finding Your Voice' shares how growing up she felt different as she was adopted. As a teen she was finding her own voice. A voice that would make her unique. **I for one am so thankful she did find her voice as it has touched me and given me the courage to face my own issues.
Mike Jung's 'Regarding Your Commendable Decision To Live' was one I could relate with as I also was the bunt of bullies taunts.
Eating disorders is another thing I struggled with personally as a teen and YA. Two essays share their own tales of this with P.J. Hoover's 'Seeping Through The Cracks' and Janet Gurtler's 'The Skinny Girl'.
Nancy Holder's 'When Dance Was Your World' shows the power of a song that moves you not just then but now.
Tara Kelly's 'Bad Girl' gives a glimpse of wishing you were someone else when inside you are great.
Each letter is sure to resonate with readers. Some are hilarious while others make you want to give the author a hug. Each author's courage to share with readers their own teen years might make you want to write your own letters or even reach out to those that did help you on your path.
A must read!
| Overall rating | 5.0 | |
| Plot | 5.0 | |
| Characters | 5.0 | |
| Writing Style | 5.0 |
Dear Teen Me
This anthology first started off as a blog where YA authors shared letters they wrote to their teen selves.I really loved the whole idea behind this premise. Some are hilarious, others poignant, and still others very touching. I was excited when I heard that an anthology would be published. There's something for everyone in this collection.
Some teasers:
Ilsa J. Bick's 'The Knife' recollects the time when the author found a knife hidden that gave her a hint behind the secrets her father hid from her. From this experience she grows stronger.
Ellen Hopkins' 'Finding Your Voice' shares how growing up she felt different as she was adopted. As a teen she was finding her own voice. A voice that would make her unique. **I for one am so thankful she did find her voice as it has touched me and given me the courage to face my own issues.
Mike Jung's 'Regarding Your Commendable Decision To Live' was one I could relate with as I also was the bunt of bullies taunts.
Eating disorders is another thing I struggled with personally as a teen and YA. Two essays share their own tales of this with P.J. Hoover's 'Seeping Through The Cracks' and Janet Gurtler's 'The Skinny Girl'.
Nancy Holder's 'When Dance Was Your World' shows the power of a song that moves you not just then but now.
Tara Kelly's 'Bad Girl' gives a glimpse of wishing you were someone else when inside you are great.
Each letter is sure to resonate with readers. Some are hilarious while others make you want to give the author a hug. Each author's courage to share with readers their own teen years might make you want to write your own letters or even reach out to those that did help you on your path.
A must read!
2. Touching, poignant, and at times hilarious each of these letters is sure to resonate with readers
| Overall rating | 4.7 | |
| Plot | 4.0 | |
| Characters | 5.0 | |
| Writing Style | 5.0 |
Hilarious & Touching
Do yourself a favor, whatever age you are, and READ.THIS.BOOK! It seriously rocks! Each of these stories will touch you in some way, whether making you laugh so hard you cry or sending you into a full-on "ugly cry". You'll be able to identify with at least one of these authors or several if you're anything like me. You may even be inspired to share your own advice with your teen self, or take action like I did after reading Jodi Meadows' story. Her heartfelt reminder about the fragility of life gave me the "kick in the pants" I needed and for that, I'm grateful. A BIG "THANK YOU!" to each of these brave authors for taking the time to pen their memories!
Dear Teen Christina,
Life sucks right now, and, I'm not going to lie to you. High school is awful, but at least middle school is over, and, so far, that exists as the nadir of your life, and I hope that does not change (it hasn't yet). Also, in junior year, you'll make a friend, a real one, the kind of friend you'll still talk to when you're unspeakably old (aka 25). Also, teen self, you should know that your fantasies of showing up at your ten year reunion incredibly hot and successful and falling in instalove with [insert one of the innumerable boys you crush on during high school] will not be coming true. Also, instalove is awful. Even in your daydreams, I expect better quality material, okay? Just know, young self, that it will get better.
There's a lot more that I could tell my teen self, because there's a lot that I've learned, even just to the extent of realizing how much I don't know. None of these authors had quite the same experience that I did, but a comment here and an embarrassing moment there spoke to me, just as others would to anyone who picks it up.
Robin Benway wrote one of my favorite letters in the anthology. Her second point begins, "High school stops mattering the second you graduate from it." This is both the truest and least accurate statement in here, I feel, and sort of sums everything up. All of these stories are people coming to terms with their middle school, high school or college experiences. In some stories, you can still feel the vitriol or the sadness, emotions still very close to the surface. These moments have a profound impact on your formation as a person. However, once I graduated from high school, I hardly looked back, and I barely remember a lot of it. The late nights frantically trying to produce a two-week science experiment in three days (you won't get a good grade on that one, self, but you weren't going to anyway) really just won't matter. And, if you don't want to, you won't ever have to see those people again.
At Decatur Book Festival, the moderator of a panel I attended made an observation that no authors of young adult fiction were popular in high school. Well, Dear Teen Me shows that this is not true. In fact, I'd say there's a pretty decent representation of different social cliques in here, although, unsurprisingly, the nerds do predominate. There are some cheerleaders, though, and at least one jock. I liked that, and getting a window into other people's high school experiences has a cathartic feeling to it, because no one had it easy. Growing up hurts.
Dear Teen Me is a brief volume, composed of short snippets, generally two to four pages long. About half of the authors go for silly self-mockery, giving an entertaining account of their teen awkwardness and playing for laughs. Most of the rest focus on a specific issue that will haunt their years, something dark and painful: eating disorders, self-harm, rape, abuse, grief over the loss of a loved one. The honesty of these stories and the bravery of the authors for putting that out there is incredible. A couple stories, sadly, didn't really say anything at all. These I did not approve of.
I whipped through Dear Teen Me in a single evening. For teenagers struggling with feeling at home in their own skin (aka all teenagers) or for those of us who still have some things from our teen years we need to get over, Dear Teen Me is a powerful read to help us feel just a little bit less alone. Also, you can see what all of the authors looked like in high school (in fact, Sean Beaudoin's letter will be all about his emo, artsy photograph), which I love.
| Overall rating | 4.0 | |
| Plot | 4.0 | |
| Characters | 4.0 | |
| Writing Style | 4.0 |
Cathartic, Funny and Touching
Originally posted on A Reader of Fictions: http://readeroffictions.blogspot.com/2012/10/review-giveaway-dear-teen-me-blog-tour.html
Dear Teen Christina,
Life sucks right now, and, I'm not going to lie to you. High school is awful, but at least middle school is over, and, so far, that exists as the nadir of your life, and I hope that does not change (it hasn't yet). Also, in junior year, you'll make a friend, a real one, the kind of friend you'll still talk to when you're unspeakably old (aka 25). Also, teen self, you should know that your fantasies of showing up at your ten year reunion incredibly hot and successful and falling in instalove with [insert one of the innumerable boys you crush on during high school] will not be coming true. Also, instalove is awful. Even in your daydreams, I expect better quality material, okay? Just know, young self, that it will get better.
There's a lot more that I could tell my teen self, because there's a lot that I've learned, even just to the extent of realizing how much I don't know. None of these authors had quite the same experience that I did, but a comment here and an embarrassing moment there spoke to me, just as others would to anyone who picks it up.
Robin Benway wrote one of my favorite letters in the anthology. Her second point begins, "High school stops mattering the second you graduate from it." This is both the truest and least accurate statement in here, I feel, and sort of sums everything up. All of these stories are people coming to terms with their middle school, high school or college experiences. In some stories, you can still feel the vitriol or the sadness, emotions still very close to the surface. These moments have a profound impact on your formation as a person. However, once I graduated from high school, I hardly looked back, and I barely remember a lot of it. The late nights frantically trying to produce a two-week science experiment in three days (you won't get a good grade on that one, self, but you weren't going to anyway) really just won't matter. And, if you don't want to, you won't ever have to see those people again.
At Decatur Book Festival, the moderator of a panel I attended made an observation that no authors of young adult fiction were popular in high school. Well, Dear Teen Me shows that this is not true. In fact, I'd say there's a pretty decent representation of different social cliques in here, although, unsurprisingly, the nerds do predominate. There are some cheerleaders, though, and at least one jock. I liked that, and getting a window into other people's high school experiences has a cathartic feeling to it, because no one had it easy. Growing up hurts.
Dear Teen Me is a brief volume, composed of short snippets, generally two to four pages long. About half of the authors go for silly self-mockery, giving an entertaining account of their teen awkwardness and playing for laughs. Most of the rest focus on a specific issue that will haunt their years, something dark and painful: eating disorders, self-harm, rape, abuse, grief over the loss of a loved one. The honesty of these stories and the bravery of the authors for putting that out there is incredible. A couple stories, sadly, didn't really say anything at all. These I did not approve of.
I whipped through Dear Teen Me in a single evening. For teenagers struggling with feeling at home in their own skin (aka all teenagers) or for those of us who still have some things from our teen years we need to get over, Dear Teen Me is a powerful read to help us feel just a little bit less alone. Also, you can see what all of the authors looked like in high school (in fact, Sean Beaudoin's letter will be all about his emo, artsy photograph), which I love.
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