Messages To The Past

By Edited by E. Kristin Anderson & Miranda Kenneally

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 14.99 192 pages

It’s always interesting to see what advice we would give ourselves if we had the chance. Dear Teen Me allows some Young Adult writers the opportunity to give some advice, and give advice they do, ranging from the very specific (some personal crises and specific individuals are mentioned) to some general advice about hanging in there and what to consider important. There are some “fluff sections” with celebrity crushes and first jobs, for example, making for some very interesting reading about hopes, dreams, and nightmares escaped.

The YA authors have a lot of fun with this, offering some advice from those that have survived the teen years as well as exorcising some personal demons. A lot of ground is covered; for every personal story presented by one author there is also a general advice column by another. The balance between the two works rather well, allowing the authors to hit specific problems as well as general encouragement. This is must-read material, if for no other reason than to show that others do go through the same things and they didn’t deal well with them either; this is a book offering some hope, and it does that rather well.

Reviewed By Jamais Jochim

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