Dear Teen Me Blog Tour

Title: Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves
Editors: E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally
ISBN: 9781936976218 
Publisher: Zest Books
Released: October 30, 2012
Page #: 192
Source: Advanced copy from the publisher for the Dear Teen Me Blog Tour

Summary:

"Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. 

So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he'd had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you'll find friends—and a lot of familiar faces—in the course of Dear Teen Me."

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Review:

Have you ever wished you could go back and give advice to your teen self? I know I have - we pretend we know everything in high school. I wish I could kick myself into gear now that I'm so old and wise :).

Dear Teen Me is the brainchild of Miranda Kenneally and E. Kristin Anderson. Apparently it started with a Hanson concert and the need to gush to her teen self. And then the blog was born. Many people started writing letters to themselves and this book is finally the anthology of those letters.

I loved reading the stories from these YA authors. Not all of the authors are people I have heard of, but their stories ring loud and clear. This book contains everything from hair issues, friendships, love relationships, dealing with parents, and even abuse. There are some that are hilarious, but some that are so serious that you feel for them as teens.

But I think one thing that really made this book wonderful for me was the sense of success. Even those letters with heavy topics, they all end with "it will get better." Maybe not in five years, maybe not even in ten. But you will make it. That was sort of the overall theme for me. And that is a very possible message that I think all teens need to hear. Even if high school is awesome for them.

I know that I am often asked for real life stories from teens. There is something reassuring about hearing that things are the same for someone else. You're not alone. You're not the only one that feels that way. You're not the only one dealing with that thing. What a great message. I'm pretty sure I will recommend this book to just about everyone - teens and adults alike. I think any age can get something wonderful from this book.
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Other Blog Reviews:

Check out the other stops on the Dear Teen Me Blog Tour!

IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq

Title: IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq
Author: ed, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field and John Ross
ISBN: 9781931859738
Publisher: Haymarket Books

Summary from BarnesandNoble.com:
"I feel that I have been sleeping all my life and I have woken up and opened my eyes to the world. A beautiful world! But impossible to live in.

These are the words of fifteen-year-old Hadiya, blogging from the city of Mosul, Iraq, to let the world know what life is really like as the military occupation of her country unfolds. In many ways, her life is familiar. She worries about exams and enjoys watching Friends during the rare hours that the electricity in her neighborhood is running.

But the horrors of war surround her everywhere—weeklong curfews, relatives killed, and friends whose families are forced to flee their homes. With black humor and unflinching honesty, Hadiya shares the painful stories of lives changed forever. “Let’s go back,” she writes, “to my un-normal life.”

With her intimate reflections on family, friendship, and community, IraqiGirl also allows us to witness the determination of one girl not only to survive, but to create, amidst the devastation of war, a future worth living for."
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First Lines:

"Do you know that Aya's grandfather was killed last Thursday by one of the American soldiers' bullets? When Aya is eight years old and asks me how her grandfather died, what will I answer her?"
Page 1 (and also later in the book - this was a little bit of a preview at the beginning of the book.)
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Review:

I don't read biographies. I really don't. But I picked this one up because it seemed like it would be really interesting - something way outside of the norm. I was absolutely blown away by this story.

This is the story of a girl living in Iraq in the last few years - it's a book that combines all of her blog posts about many issues dealing with war, politics, culture, family, and much more. It's a very honest and real look into a family who is living the horrors of war and how it is affecting them.

There's something about this story that makes you feel like you've been kicked in the gut. I mean, it's a heart-wrenching portrayal of war - and it's all true. I honestly couldn't believe some of the things that she was writing about. The things that happened in her everyday life. I just can't imagine living in a world with little electricity, bombs going off, curfews, and all that stuff.

Honestly this book just makes me very thankful for what I have. And it did make me question some of the world I live in. I'm not really one to get into political issues and all that, so maybe I'm a little sheltered. But to hear some of her stories really makes me wonder how things got to where they are. Who made these decisions. What are we trying to accomplish?

This book was wonderful and I absolutely recommend this to anyone. I think that older teens may get more out of the story - in thinking about the future and where they may be in the next few years. It's also an introspective story about Hadia trying to figure out who she is and how she is affected by her surroundings. It's just so powerful.

And here's something amazing: You can visit her blog to get the updates. I haven't sat down and read it yet, but I can imagine that it would be a very interesting continuation.
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Other Blog Reviews:

I honestly couldn't find any other reviews out there - at least not ones put out by the publisher. So please, let me know if you've read this one. I'd love to add your review. If you haven't read it, I'd definitely recommend it.