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The Drama Years: Real Girls Talk About Surviving Middle School -- Bullies, Brands, Body Image, And More (2012)

by Haley Kilpatrick(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1451627912 (ISBN13: 9781451627916)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Free Press

review 1: I learned about this book through the A Mighty Girl Facebook feed, and I'm so glad I did.The author, Haley Kilpatrick, is a woman on a mission: ease the transition girls and their parents from elementary school to high school by focusing them on the positive coping mechanisms she was lucky enough to have while she traveled that journey. The three parts of this positive process are: have a physical outlet, have a older mentor who has recently been through the tween years, and have an on-going service-minded goal. To that end, Haley created GirlTalk, a national non-profit organization that builds in many of these pieces and perpetuates itself. Haley's writing is very unassuming without being bad, and it was easy to be drawn in by her stories, however repetitive they were.... more The best part of the book, though, is that she was able to interview hundreds of middle school girls, high school girls, and girls' parents to get perspective on the good and the bad, and she offers advice for dealing with all kinds of things - consumerism, body image, crushes and dating, school stress, friendship drama, and several more topics. As the parent of a middle school daughter, it is an invaluable resource. My only regret is that I read a library copy - I'll be purchasing one soon so I can make notes in the margin.
review 2: As the parent of a middle school girl, I appreciated the topics covered in this book. Many of the quotes from interviews of middle school girls sounded like soundbites from everyday conversations with my own 7th grader. The book isn't necessarily an advice or parenting manual -- but more of a "hey, you aren't alone in this" type of book. There is advice given -- the three steps for dealing with the drama are sound (having an older peer mentor, doing volunteer work, engage in an extra-school activity) However, the reliance upon an older peer mentor is reiterated too frequently -- I don't think that having a friend who is 15 or 16 is the answer to all the problems our middle schoolers face. I also think that the author needs to state earlier in the book than the last chapter that she is neither a licensed counselor nor a psychologist. While she is the founder of a successful girls group and draws upon these experiences to give moms a sense that they are not alone, she is not an expert and her book should be read with the fact of who the author is clearly in mind. This is not an ADVICE book -- and I advise, as does the author finally in the last chapter, to seek professional help if your daughter's depression, anxiety, or anger persists and is not manageable. Oh - one other thing, I disagree with the author's frequent suggestion that our middle school girls talk to people OTHER than their mothers. less

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