Coping Through Friendship

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up Sometimes flippant and sometimes wise, Carter advises teens about how friends can help one to cope with life. She leads them toward an understanding of self and of other people. Suggesting a more practical approach than ``if you want to have a friend, be a friend,'' she advises such tactics as studying a group and learning how to identify and fit in a niche. Other topics include friendship vs. romance, peer pressure, dealing with rejections, and healing a broken friendship. Carter states, ``we almost automatically dislike someone who is very fat, very skinny, a sloppy-looking slob or a weakling.'' Little hope or help is implied for students who might find it difficult or impossible to change that physical image, and those are the very teens who may be seeking hope or help from self-help books such as this. Writing is choppy with many one-sentence paragraphs and sentence fragments. Teens may identify with the situations described and glean bits of advice that suit them, but will be better served by Booher's Making Friends with Yourself and Other Strangers (Messner, 1982). It is less flippant, better organized, more comprehensive, and more smoothly written. Lois McCulley, Wichita Falls High School, Tex.