Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul’s The Real Deal: Challenges

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Deborah Reber
Health Communications, Inc. (2006)
ISBN 0757304079
Reviewed by Cathy Yanda for Reader Views (7/06)

This book will remind everyone who reads it that we all have challenges in our lives and even when they seem like more than we can handle, we can face them and overcome them. True to the Chicken Soup series, this book full of beautifully written, true-life stories and poems. “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul’s The Read Deal: Challenge” lets you read what other teenagers have to say about disses, losses, messes, stresses and more. This book should be on every teen’s bookshelf - just in case they want to read it. If there had been a resource like this when I was a teenager, I’d have been more prepared for many things - from peer pressure to have sex and use drugs to my parents’ divorce. This is not an advice book. It is a book written by teens for teens in their own words, and they touched me deeply. One of my favorites, titled ‘Silent Scream’, written by Ashley, a 16 year old, about being an emotional basket case. This poem could have been written about me when I was her age. I cried when I read ‘Chain Reaction’ written by 19-year-old Megan about the mugging and death of her best friend.

Challenges are a part of each of our lives. It is difficult enough to be a teenager with raging hormones without having to also forgive your best friend for being with the guy who broke your heart or having your dad die or being the shortest kid in class or failing a class. Each chapter includes stories, poems, self-quizzes, and tidbits about movies to see and books to read. Topics include everything from anorexia, cutting yourself, abuse, peer pressure, being stabbed in the back by a friend and much more. This book is not one to be read straight through but to savor the writing on each page, to be referred to when the need arises. It is a valuable resource for parents to help you understand what your teenagers and tweens might be going through. It is well-written, composed of just enough information to be valuable and yet not be overwhelming, and on a level that will easily speak to the teenager in your life.

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