Welcome to Books by Teens. We believe that your kids are the experts in their lives and worlds. When they talk - to you and in our books - they have the opportunity to think before they act on many complex issues in their lives. As parents, your power is in listening as well as hearing what your teenagers have to say. Too often, teens are sworn to keep secrets by their peers. That's where Books by Teens can make the leap between loyalty to friends and the need for adult guidance.

What are the issues addressed in Books by Teens? Kids have to deal with the issues of growing up in a complex world - whether through their own experiences, their friends, seeing things happen to other kids in school, or watching “life” on television, the movies, or the internet. While they're old enough to be exposed to these issues, they're often too young to integrate cause and effect, and to predict short and long-term consequences. It's hard enough to do that as a parent - as a teenager, it's often impossible. Everything frombullying and divorce to diversity and peer pressure, the internet, and dangers of group think impact on our teenagers.

How can you help your teens handle these problems? Lectures don't work. Research has shown that people of all ages learn and retain limited information from a lecture environment. The best approach is hands-on, active involvement where parents and teens can use real-life situations to find safe, effective solutions. You can guide your kids without arguments, negative conflicts, and power struggles. Read Books by Teens together, with your children, keeping in mind that kids participated in writing, editing and plotting the content. Discuss the characters, the situations, and possible solutions. It's your chance to really hear and guide your child while in very safe and neutral territory. When read along with YOU ARE THE AUTHOR!, teenagers have the unique opportunity to write their own version of the story.

How can you get your child's school interested in making Books by Teens required reading?

1. Introduce Books by Teens to the educators in your school who are responsible for ordering bulk copies and initiating student book clubs, mental health projects, group projects, and curriculum-based classroom work.
2. Suggest that Books by Teens become a PTA project to supply copies to all of the students in a specific grade, as a special project, or as a way to introduce them to middle school.
3. Bring a copy of Books by Teens to one or several of your child’s teachers, explaining the different ways it can be used in the classroom.
4. Suggest to the educators in your school that they go to www.booksbyteens.com to fully understand the educational potential.
5. Organize a PTA, Arts-in-Education, or special grant workshop that includes Books by Teens.
   

For more information, contact booksbyteens@jerifink.com.

To purchase your own copy of Matthew's Web, click here.
To purchase Matthew's Web in bulk at author's discount price (20 books or more) click here.

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