Adolescents Books

Dr Jean Piaget studied hundreds of children from birth to 18 months old and made detailed observations of his observances. Dr Piaget shows how children get a concept of what is real and what is not real and how it develops over the time period specified.

A must for any early childhood educator, the book is well written (and translated well, also). Children at that age change so rapidly, it's amazing to see how they can put their world together based on their experiences.

I highly recommend this book for early childhood educators and parents, also.

"Consumers Guide To LTC" is an excellent resource for everyone involved with long term care. Clearly written, concise chapters provide relevent information about most issues in nursing homes. Nursing care, Dietary services, Social/Medical services, Nursing Assistant training- what to look for and watch out for. Great source of state to state contacts for filing complaints, looking up survey records of nursing homes is listed in back. The survey process is briefly described, OBRA regulations relating to resident rights are thouroughly reviewed and explained. Advanced directives are also written about. This book is a must read for anyone looking into placing a loved one into a nursing home; it is also a must read for staff who work within the walls of a long term care facilty (nursing home) I strongly recommend this book.

One of the greatest problems parents or those that work with youngsters face is the ability to contend with societal and moral issues without appearing to lecture. Marianna Csoti's, 'Contentious Issues - Discussion Stories for Young People,' offers a sturdy platform from which to begin. The book cleverly introduces fictional but true-to-life events that deal with topics such as ethnicity, racism, sexism and stereotypes.

Aimed at 11-18 year olds, Csoti's book challenges young adults to discuss, debate and resolve complicated situations that a youngster has faced or might face as they progress towards adulthood. The adult heading the discussions acts as the 'leader' - the person that oversees discussions, keeps them on track and in general, offers several viewpoints for youngsters to comment upon. To assist him with this task, leader sheets are contained within the book that urge him to guide presenting neither answers nor agreeing/disagreeing with viewpoints tendered. Rather he is asked to offer alternatives or more challenging viewpoints.

The book is separated into three sections. Section 1 accommodates 11-14 year olds; section 2 caters to 12-15 year olds and section 3 is aimed at the young adult - the16-18 year old. The stories contained within each section are read aloud to the group in question setting the scene and topic for discussion. Quite often the stories progress in a given order utilizing the same characters within the stories and promoting the book's effectiveness. As the characters involved become familiar and the consequences of certain actions are brought into play, the issues at hand can be yet further explored.

While the early section of the book deals with viewpoints for discussion, section 2 contains one story that includes role-playing. 'I'm a Person Too,' tackles the issue of teenage and parental rights and suggests that two people, one who takes the role of the mother and one who takes the role of a teenage girl, read the story in question. This one story can effectively bring the situation to life for many youngsters while section 3 differs again by offering hands-on tasks that allow young adults to be the decision makers, and to individualize problems for themselves.

This comprehensive book incorporates many situations and instances related to the every day life of a youth. It would prove a valuable resource for professionals, including councilors and teachers that work with young adults on society related issues. Although the book works best in a group environment, parents could easily adapt its contents for one-on-one discussion.

The book concludes with a selection of useful contacts that pertain to the issues contained within. While these contacts are all based within the UK, many have website addresses that could prove valuable as a starting point for further help and assistance.

Marianna Costi's book is effective. It is effective because it doesn't judge and we can reach a young adult without criticism and without imposing our views. Too often we dictate, too often we decide the viewpoints for our children and too often we force morality on them without explaining why. Again, this book is effective. Why? Because it gives young adults the greatest gift of all - it allows them their own point of view.

despite Dr David B Stein's unfortunate stand on psychotropic medications, the book is excellent and deserves the highest praise.

Famed psychologist Dr. R.D. Laing records conversations between himself, his two children (Adam and Natasha) and his wife Jutta. Brilliantly profound listening to the children speak their wisdom. The author points out that nothing is tampered with in the conversations besides some inadvertent ommissions. Also there are no after thoughts or annotations, for he felt he would like that job to someone else. Funny and charming, this book (although currently out of print)can make you appreciate children more often, and listening to them a great deal more. A good companion to Laing's 'Knots.' If you enjoyed this, I would also suggest Gregory Bateson's 'Steps To An Ecology of Mind.'

I found this book very helpful and easy to understand. I have recently switched careers and I am working with adolescents versus adults and this book assisted me in furthering my knowledge of adolescents.

Helps me feel there is hope. I particularly liked the coping ideas.

Without trying to review my own book, I would like to make sure that readers know that, as of January 1998,this book is again available. For several months at the end of 1997 Basic Books was undergoing corporate restructuring and publication ceased temporarily. That process is completed now and the book being published again.

This book literally changed our lives! It gave us an insight into our 13 year old son, which we would have never have been able to arrive at alone. I purchased 4 books on this subject and read them all. The other three were pretty much psycho babble....stating the obvious and not offering any real solutions. While this book doesn't promise any quick fixes, it does give you some tools, suggestions and, most of all, support. It feels so good to know that your kid isn't the only one. That they aren't underachieving because they are lazy or just don't care. Now, I see that it's just not that simple. It give you a different perspective, from which to see your child and changes your approach on how to deal with issues....especially when you are a Type A overachieving Mom. Parents, arm yourself with the insights that this book brings. You will be a better advocate for your child as you deal with teachers and administrators.

Patricia H. Davis does a masterful job of presenting the unique problems and needs of adolescent girls. Especially at this age, girls are trying to find their place in the world as women, and discovering that society's expectations for them are very different from expectations for their brothers.

Davis shows that the crises of adolescence are very different for most girls than for most boys, and that the basic adolescent task of separation and differentiation from the parents can often be difficult, because the daughter identifies more closely with the mother than does a son with the father. Adolescent girls need to be heard, need to have permission to see themselves as powerful and competent, need to feel loved for themselves. They especially need this support from fathers and male role models.

This book will be extraordinarily helpful to anyone who deals with this age group in the church, especially male pastors and youth group leaders. Without being strident, Davis makes the case that growing up female is very different from growing up male, and that we cannot simply generalize knowledge from boys to girls, especially in this age group. Girls combat low self-esteem differently than boys, more often turning to self-destructive behaviors than acting out aggressively, for example.

This book is a great read, and a must for the pastor's library.