|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Positive, accessible and constructive, this self help book for teens builds resilience as well as empowerment. Great stuff.|rating=4.5|buy=Yes|borrow=Yes
|pages=132
|publisher=Tellwell Talent
'''Nine Ways to Empower Tweens #LifeSkills by Kathleen Boucher and Sara Chadwick'''
We''9 Ways to Empower Tweens'' is a self help book for tweens, setting out to show them vital #lifeskills. Don't groan! I know there is a market glut of such books for we grown ups and for young adults too, but there is a needful space in an increasingly technological world accessible to younger and younger children for material for tweens too. There are nine short sections: How to Speak ConfidentlyStart Each Day With GratitudeUsing Vision Boards, Big and SmallHow to Defuse Anger and FrustrationLearning About Time and FocusThe Effects of a Good Work EthicFirst Impressions and InterviewsSelf-Talk MattersStart Each Day With Love in Your Heart Each is written from the point of view of Emma and Elliott, who are twelve-year-old twins. They explain things in a simple and relatable way and in a positive voice. And each has an easy to follow exercise at the end - perfect both for individual readers and for teachers to adapt to classroom work. I particularly liked the exercise attached to the chapter about defusing anger: ''Write Away Stress'', which not only provides an immediate way to vent angry feelings but also encourages tweens to pass this message on to friends it might help. Touches like this really make ''9 Ways to Empower Tweens'' stand out. I don't want to precis the whole thing but the book is genuinely full of practical wisdom and advice, from building resilience through affirming oneself and recognising intrusive thoughts, to making relationships of trust. And there are plenty of little humorous interjections to stop it from an overly worthy feel. There's a goldfish joke in there that made me laugh out loud. But I'm not telling you what it is: you'll soon have to buy the book to find out. I have been a review little bit worried of late that the word ''empowerment'' has been subject to a little bit of mission creep - that any form of self expression is empowering, that actually doing anything that takes your fancy is also empowering. I don't think that's quite true. Human relationships are about give and take. They are negotiations and negotiating well, for the benefit of oneself ''and'' others, is the key to a fulfilling and happy life. Empowerment isn't very empowering without resilience either. And so I absolutely ''loved'' this little book. It emphasises resilience throughout and it also places thoughtfulness at its centre. Children reading will come away with a good understanding that human beings have rights ''and'' responsibilities and that the key is achieving a healthy balance between them. As one of the endorsers of the bookpithily puts it, the empowering here is showing tweens how ''to become lifelong learners and teachers''. I don't know about tweens, but I found it empowering myself! And in all the right ways. Recommended. Highly recommended. Older teens could look at the advice for modern adolescence in [[The Self-Esteem Team's Guide to Sex, Drugs and WTFs?!! by The Self-Esteem Team]] while anybody looking for something explicitly for teen boys could try [[Unzipped: A Toolkit for Life by Matt Whyman]].
You can read more about Kathleen Boucher [[:Category:Kathleen Boucher|here]].
