Bouncing Back: Dealing With the Stuff Life Throws at You (Scholastic Choices)

Describes how the property of resilience can help teens cope with stress and non-ideal situations, and provides tips for how to become more resilient.

Grade 6–8—The image of a bouncing ball is used effectively throughout this book to discuss the concept of resiliency in the context of adjusting to life's problems. Each chapter begins with a short vignette of a teen facing a stressful situation and ends by reminding readers of the story and hypothesizing solutions. There are many positives here: the advice given is psychologically sound, the writing is clear and easy to read, the pages are visually appealing, and photos show teens of both genders and various racial backgrounds. Even with all these pluses, though, there is little substance. The idea of becoming resilient and thus resisting and coping with stress is well explained. However, the solutions are incorporated into simplistic acronyms such as "ICAN," standing for Identifying problems, Coming up with solutions, Analyzing them, and Now picking one and going for it. The usefulness of this self-help book is limited to helping those who face small crises, or slightly disorganized lives and are motivated to change. For those with more serious issues, the solutions offered here are too pat.—Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
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