Staying Safe on Public Transportation

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-These two titles tell young women how to detect, avoid, prevent, and cope with physically and emotionally threatening situations when traveling alone. Chaiet presents similar tactics in each book and discusses the importance of awareness, verbal and physical self-defense, having a plan, and listening to one's instincts. The texts are clearly written, easy to read, and punctuated with interesting, dramatized examples of how and how not to handle various situations. The author does a commendable job of conveying information about personal boundaries and building self-reliance. However, one stereotype is perpetuated by omission: women are never presented as perpetrators of crimes against young women. Black-and-white and full-color photographs help break up the text into digestible pieces, but are amateurish and of inconsistent quality. Overall, though, these are thorough discussions delivered in a palatable and well-organized format.Joan Soulliere, Wenham Public Library, MA

Stephanie Zvirin

Part of the new Get Prepared Library series, this book for young women has good intentions but is only partly successful. The author, president of Prepare, Inc., an organization that conducts teen safety programs, shares some good advice about staying alert when traveling by bus, train, or taxicab and about responding firmly and sensibly when a situation becomes unpleasant or dangerous. The jacket photo is quite nice, the brevity of the text and the extra-large type make the information accessible, and the safety scenarios seem authentic. However, the writing is largely pedestrian, and the photos are both poor in quality and not well matched to the captions (a few are unintentionally funny). There's lots of padding, too, and Chaiet even resorts to promoting her own organization. Other books in the series are repetitive and also often padded, making one wonder whether the information here could have been combined more successfully into a single title. Consequently, if better material on a particular safety concern currently exists (as in the areas of sexual abuse and date rape), volumes in this series have not been recommended. A few titles, including this one, may be of use (others are listed in the Series Roundup in this issue), as they seem to fill a void in the literature. Teens willing to delve more deeply into the subject should have a look at Helen Benedict's "Safe, Strong, and Streetwise" (1987), which also delineates safety issues for young men."