Book Review: Tempted, 6th in the House of Night Series

If you have not finished this book, do not read this book review - it will spoil it for you! Tempted is book six in the House of Night series and begins after Zoey and her friends have banished Kalona and Neferet, Zoey and Stark are both recovering, the nuns and vampires are friends, and it is clear that Stevie Rae is keeping some really bad secrets about her red vampires and a bigger secret - a raven mocker.

Zoey continues to struggle with her memories from her life as A-ya, multiple loves, which annoys many adult readers, and her new found powers. Stark is struggling with his ability to protect Zoey, Aphrodite and Darius are getting serious, and Zoey and her friends go to see the high council. The death in the last chapter breaks your heart, and leaves Zoey shattered.

The whole book seems to span about a week in their lives and at the end, I felt like it was a little formulaic and a rip-off, teasing readers with the next book, without much substance. I was disappointed, but it was a fun read.

Photo credit: Jake Sutton

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Resources for Sexual Minority Youth

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Book Review: What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College

According to M. Spohn (2008), most parents experience some sort of separation anxiety when their child leaves for college. What to Expect When Your Child Leaves for College: A Complete Guide for Parents Only will give you some valuable information to help make the upcoming transition easier, including information about encouraging independence, offering support, handling the drop-off, dealing with empty nest syndrome, and how to keep the lines of communication open. There is some great advice about how to plan meaningful family time, and how to teach your child to live on his or her own.

Additionally, there are some suggestions about how to deal with seemingly irrational behavior in the summer before college, which may include spending excessive amounts of time with friends, ignoring you, and even being a real pain to be around. This book can help you prepare for the emotional roller coaster you may experience as your child adjusts to college life, and your child’s first visit home. Practical and supportive – this book is a must read for parents.

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Thank You - Grand Rounds 6.6

Thank you Dr. Joe Kim at Non-Clinical Jobs for hosting Grand Rounds 6.6 this week and including a post from Teen Health 411 about emergency preparedness.

This week was such an easy read - organized and interesting!

Photo credit: Ed Bierman

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Is "Average" Really OK?

My heart is going out to teens these days, especially in my high-achieving community. It seems school districts and parents alike have lost the sense that "average" is really OK, and in some cases, much healthier than "above average."

An emotional goal of adolescence is to answer the question "who am I" acquiring self-certainty as opposed to self-consciousness and self-doubt. Most teens approach life expecting to succeed and achieve their goals rather than being paralyzed by feelings of inferiority. On a normal path, adolescents seek out people who inspire them and gradually develop a set of ideals and goals for their future. This is all perfectly normal, and if all goes well, teens become young women and young men who believe they can do whatever they set their minds to and are willing to work hard enough for. This process gets stunted if the expectations set for them are unreasonable.

At a recent school board meeting the district reported that a student with standardized test scores in the district's 25th percentile (translated: higher scoring than 25% of the other kids) ranks in the 75th percentile when compared to other students in our state and the United States. In fact, our two public high schools are ranked #1 and #4 in the state (out of 1,000 public high schools.). In addition, the mean SAT score for our students is 1920, while the state mean SAT score is 1511 and the national mean is 1509. Well, that is a wake up call!

How on earth did "perfect" become the goal? Why on earth are we pushing our children to be so much above average? How this translates into a teen brain is "whoa, I am working my butt off and am not as bright as 75% of the kids in my school. I will never be able to get into college, I will never amount to anything, I am such a disappointment! What is wrong with me? "

Well, nothing is wrong with any our teens - and I believe that the problem lies with us - the adults in my community - the schools, the parents, the teachers, and the colleges that are setting the performance bar way too high! Most of us are average when held to norms for most things, but what is important is that we all know we are above average in the hearts of our family and the people who love us!

Photo credit: hardeep.singh

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