Middle School

June 1, 2001
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs24 Reviewed with Juliana Farrell's \plain\f3\fs24" High School.\plain\f3\fs24

Written in the style of a breezy magazine piece, this title offers mostly commonsense advice about the academic, extracurricular, and social changes faced by students entering middle school and junior high. Occasionally, the text reveals irritating biases: it warns in a discussion of foreign languages that because Spanish is rumored to be "the easiest language, the slackers may take over this class." But the book is helpful in covering increasingly difficult academic subjects, how to cope with different teachers' styles, and how to improve communication and establish trust with parents. Formatted in choppy, occasionally hard-to-read text boxes, this isn't a necessary purchase, but the sporadic helpful tips make for decent browsing material. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)