Teen Rights: A Legal Guide for Teens and the Adults in Their Lives

Outlines the laws that relate specifically to teenagers, such as those pertaining to school, abuse, and work.

Grade 9 Up-Truly offers legal scenarios, court cases, advice, and facts about issues involving teens and the law. The book covers a broad range of topics, including abortion, confidentiality, medical care, job-related issues, and dependency and neglect cases. Court cases and tips that may serve as starting points for readers curious about how the legal system applies to them appear throughout. The book also offers advice to those who may find themselves in potentially harmful situations. Attention is given to constitutional rights, rights of a school system, the role of parents, and the responsibilities of employers. With a subdivided table of contents and index, the book is user-friendly. Appendixes give information on the variance of laws from state to state. Some of the topics stretch beyond the legal scope of the book to discuss eating disorders and suicide. These chapters offer advice about seeking help, recognizing danger signs, and helping a friend in need. The book is useful as a quick reference for students interested in their rights at school, at home, and at work.
Julie Webb, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville, KY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7-up. In this carefully crafted book, attorney Truly outlines teenagers' rights and responsibilities in relation to such areas as school, home, body, work, property, and the courts. She discusses specific issues, describes the rulings in pertinent cases, and explains the reasoning when there are differences in verdicts. Each of the more than 40 chapters is brief, and the information is easy to find and understand. An appendix delineating each state's specific laws adds further clarification, and there's an extensive list of organizations, Web sites, agencies, and hotlines. A short chapter on legal research opens the door for teens to defend themselves, a noble, but perhaps ill-advised, inclusion on Truly's part. This is a valuable resource, however, that should be included in both the YA and adult library collections. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

This book reviews the legal rights of teenagers at school, home, and work, ranging from property rights to treatment in the criminal justice system and including an extensive chapter on teens and their bodies. Here the author discusses eating disorders, suicide, birth control, abortion, marriage, medical care, and privacy issues. As an attorney and author, Truly explains the law in terms of situations teens encounter today. She includes summaries of significant court cases that reflect the state of the law and appends a 50-state legal guide that provides a quick reference for finding a state's law on abortion, age of majority, driver's licenses, curfews, emancipation, and more. Truly punctuates the chapters with boxed and highlighted tips that contain nuggets of advice on everything from safety issues to how to deal with parental divorce. The explanations dispel common myths and provide teens, parents, and teachers with important information on rights and responsibilities. Recommended for public and high school libraries.
Joan Pedzich, Harris Beach L.L.P., Rochester, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.