Dealing with Mom: How to Understand Your Changing Relationship (Sunscreen)

You love your mom, but sometimes she drives you crazy!

No relationship is more fraught with emotion than the one with Mom. This book helps teens understand the ups and downs of this ever-changing dynamic, from how and why their feelings about Mom are changing, to perspective on Mom's own needs. Using personal testimonies as well as typical situations and explanations, this Sunscreen title will help young people understand their tumultuous feelings about Mom. AUTHOR BIO: Tucker Shaw is a former writer for Alloy.com and author of the "Ask Tucker" column. In addition, he has written two novels and such YA self-help books as This Book Is About Sex and Dreams: Explore the You That You Can't Control.

Grade 6-8 -This book is meant to help readers make sense of their often-conflicted relationships with their mothers. It is divided into four sections, labeled "phases." The first two describe fetal development and mother-infant relations and are likely to provoke much eye rolling in any teen who reads them. Phase three offers a discussion of mother/teen conflicts, and phase four contains anecdotes about special situations, such as having same-sex parents or a mother who suffers from depression. The writing is straightforward and breezy, with occasional inclusions of Freudian theory. Although this title is ostensibly addressed to either gender, it is most likely to appeal to girls, and the suggestions for further reading, which include Esther Drill's Deal with It! (Pocket Books, 1999) and Julia Devillers's GirlWise (Three Rivers, 2002), and the suggested Web sites, such as Cosmogirl.com and Gurl.com, emphasize this focus. There is some useful advice here, but teens who are in genuine conflict with their mothers may find it too simplistic. Michael J. Bradley's Yes, Your Parents Are Crazy!: A Teen Survival Handbook (Harbor, 2004) and Doris A. Fuller and Natalie Fuller's Promise You Won't Freak Out (Penguin, 2004) are better choices.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
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