Random question: If you were able to somehow return to your high school days, would you?
I didn’t think so.

And, by the way, it’s not like I had a miserable high school experience. Baruch Hashem I was a good student, and I had my circle of friends. Yes, I admit to being studious and letting the heavy homework load and test schedule drive me just a little bit batty—but I don’t think that’s why I wouldn’t want to go back to being a high school student.

It’s the politics that come along with high school. The intensity of it all. The fear of being seen walking to the drinking fountain alone (Will people think I don’t have friends?); the hyperventilating if you find yourself wearing the wrong kind of ensemble for School Shabbos; the self-consciousness of eating a piece of cake in public, because what if people think I don’t care about my weight? And on and on… It’s enough to drive a mature adult really batty!

So yeah, I’m glad those high school years are over and done with, and we’re on to bigger and better things in life.

But sometimes, it’s good to be reminded of what exactly high school life is all about, even if only to be grateful that you’re no longer in that era. And if you are a high school girl still in the thick of those years, it’s incredibly validating to read an outsider’s perspective of it.

That’s why I think You’ll Be a Survivor is such a phenomenal book. In this novel, where the main characters are a tenth grader and a twelfth grader, the author really gets it. She gets the whole peer pressure syndrome, the need for friends’ validation…everything that goes into being a modern-day high school girl. And she takes that knowledge and creates an emotional  and suspenseful storyline around it. The book is incredibly relatable, and pulses with real-life drama in a way that truly touches the reader, no matter what stage of life she may be at.

Take my word for it: if you’re a teenager, or the mother of one, or even if you’re neither—you’ll love You’ll Be a Survivor.

Click here to purchase online

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2019 at 10:33 am and is filed under General, New Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.