This book is wonderful. The authors have done an excellent job of taking a subject that is inordinately complicated--the nature of adolescence, and its relation to adulthood--and rendered it understandable. The book has several strands that combine to produce incredibly helpful insights. There are stories of real adolescents, as they struggle with that place in-between childhood and young adulthood, wanting to move toward the latter without really wanting (or knowing how) to move from the former. There are concepts drawn from adolescent, clinical and developmental psychology that help the reader make sense of the stories. There is practical advice about how to act in relation to our own adolescents--that is, how to change our own behaviors in ways that are most useful to our own kids as they navigate toward adulthood. These aspects, together, provide the most useful and compelling book on the subject that I have read. And the book is inordinately readable--the writing is accessible, the stories are moving, and the writers' tone is inviting and thoughtful. I have never before given such a positive review, but this book is worth it.
