The Girl Guide: Finding Your Place in a Mixed-Up World

Gr 6–9—Sporting a sassy, appealing cover, The Girl Guide elbows its way into the already-crowded market of self-help and self-esteem-building books. Seventeen chapters are grouped into five distinct sections beginning with "The Journey Begins" and ending with "Putting It All into Practice." Boxes of information that rarely exceed a page are the norm and they are often broken up with quotes from real teens and worksheet pages, or, "What Would You Do?" write-in sections, activity pages, and listings of tools for maintaining an emotionally healthy outlook. Fonseca's text rolls the fun of scrapbooking and taking fashion magazine self-assessments together with common sense advice and nearly tough love dispensed by a life coach. She repeatedly suggests that readers journal or draw or clip images from magazines and paste them on a "dream poster" that can serve as a physical reminder. There's a bit of genius at play here as the author gives the gift of time to her readers-time for reflection and for de-stressing through the act of creating. Teens should not rush through this book. No quick fixes are offered, just reasonable suggestions for maintaining true north through the turbulent teen years.—Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ