Grades 9-12. A high-school English teacher, Camacho has gathered more than four-dozen essays from young people—many of them college students or recent graduates—reflecting on their lives, their pasts, their future prospects, and their personal philosophies. Per the editor’s request, each essay is rooted in a quotation from a book that has touched the writer’s life in a powerful way. The results offer a remarkable array of life experiences, some dramatic—a boy comes out to an unforgiving parent; a girl reflects on the murder of her father—some more introspective. The contributions are divided into five sections dealing, respectively, with beliefs and ideals; family, friends, and love; hard times and hope; identity and self; and dreams and the future. Each section concludes with questions designed to spur reflection, discussion, and writing. The book itself concludes with a guide for educators on sharing this title with students. Though designed for classroom use, the book will also reward an audience of independent readers.
Gr 9 Up-Camacho has collected dozens of essays in response to a call for reflection on the impact a book has made on the contributors' lives. The three-page introspective essays are organized by themes such as "Beliefs and Ideals," "Hard Times and Hope," and "Identity and Self." Each selection centers on a specific quote from a book that inspired the teen writer. The five themed sections are followed by a set of questions designed to encourage readers to think about, write about, and discuss the essays. It is unlikely that teens will read this book from cover to cover. The format is most appealing to teachers looking for an example of a student essay on a specific quote from a novel. A list of quoted authors, along with a section for teachers, makes the book most useful and appealing. Libraries looking to support reflective writing in the English curriculum may also find this book useful. Showing the impact that books have on teens' lives is interesting, but the book will need hand selling, even for those readers interested in the concept.-Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.