Helping Teens Cope: Resources for the School Library Media Specialist and Other Youth Workers

(Paperback)

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Description

Here's how to encourage reading, develop programs, and make connections. This book offers librarians, media specialists, and others who work with adolescents sound ideas for offering support and encouraging them to become leaders in their communities and take the guesswork out of programming by helping you understand what teens need.

Reviews

The goals of this book are teen centered, suggesting media specialists and others strive to make direct impact on the lives of teens through collection development, programming and advocacy. The author believes this can be accomplished through 'developing services and programs that promote resiliency' (p. vii). The second chapter is devoted to this concept of resiliency, and the author specifically explains how to advance this perspective in work with teens. Another key concept is bibliotherapy, and a chapter is devoted to this idea as well. Following are ten 'problems and challenges that may be experienced by teens' (p. viii). Topics that would be anticipated, such as teen pregnancy, depression and suicide, substance abuse, and divorce are presented, as well as topics such as maltreatment, eating disorders and body image, self-inflicted violence, relationship violence, driving, and bullying and cliques. Recommended titles for use in bibliotherapy are included, and divided into annotated lists for middle school and high school (it becomes clear that another book for middle school needs to be written on these topics). The titles are current, with the addition of a few books deemed 'classics.' Special features include Web sites related to the topics, a model for interactive booktalking and a month-by-month calendar of events (such as International Literacy Day, and Gay and Lesbian Month) with brief explanatory information and Web sites. This book goes beyond what most discussions of bibliotherapy provide, and in addition to presenting book titles the author suggests a program of action for direct engagement with teens. Recommended. * Library Media Connection *

Author Bio

Jami Biles Jones is a media specialist and adjunct instructor at Barron Collier High School in Naples, FL. Her published works includes The Power of the Media Specialist to Improve Academic Achievement and Strengthen At-Risk Students.