"The teen-friendly format combines narration from the authors along with first-hand accounts from students, inspirational poetry, short quizzes and a blend of trivia and practical facts. Insightful, encouraging and honest, this book is a must read for every teenager in transition."
– Abby Plesser, BookPage
"The Real Deal is a unique, must-read book for anyone who has a teen in his or her life. Run, don't walk, to your nearest book store!"
– Dana E. Blozis,
ind. book reviewer
– Abby Plesser, BookPage
"The Real Deal is a unique, must-read book for anyone who has a teen in his or her life. Run, don't walk, to your nearest book store!"
– Dana E. Blozis,
ind. book reviewer
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul's The Real Deal: School features 50 stories and poems written by teens, combined with essays and sidebar material that talks about issues relevant to teen lives. The Real Deal: School tackles all the tough questions and fun times associated with school life. From taking tests to dealing with cliques, from teachers to crushes and all the other relationships teens have to deal with on a daily basis, teens will see themselves (and their friends and enemies) in this honest and fun book.
Peek inside the other books in
The Real Deal series!
The Real Deal series!
School. Love it or hate it, it's where you spent most of your time (at least the hours you're awake). When we first set out to writing a book about school life, especially one called The Real Deal, we wanted to get down to it and talk about the highs and lows of student life for today's teenagers. What we found out is that teens all over the world are dealing with the same things—peer pressure, bullying, cliques, sports, stress, gossip, changing schools, struggling to keep up the grades, getting a bad reputation, having no reputation at all. It's pretty clear that being a student these days is challenging stuff.
This first book in The Real Deal series has what you've come to expect and love from the Chicken Soup books—real stories and poems from real people. For The Real Deal, we wanted to go one step further, so we only included stories that were written exclusively by teens just like you. I hope you'll find that the result is a collection of stories that speaks to where you're at right now, written by people who are dealing with the same kinds of things you are.
The response to our call for submissions was overwhelming, and we want to thank all of you who took the time to submit your poems and stories for consideration. We know what an effort it is to get organized enough to submit, and we don't take that commitment lightly. Unfortunately we couldn't publish all of the wonderful writing we received, but please know that we did read each and every submission, and their content helped us figure out what issues are really important so we could make sure The Real Deal was as true to your own experiences as it could be.
As you flip through this book, you'll see that The Real Deal is also different from the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books in that it's full of quizzes, little side stories, and tidbits on everything from movies to see and books to read to different ways to approach problems and things to write about in your journal. We changed up the design too, so the book would be as engaging and fun as it could be. The Real Deal is full of so much great info that you can flip open to any page and in just a few seconds discover a new interesting fact or be challenged to think about a situation from a different point of view. We hope this makes The Real Deal a book that you'll go back to again and again, and that you'll take away something new each and every time.
There's one more new feature in The Real Deal, and that's the addition of my voice throughout the book. So who am I? Well, I'm a thirty-something woman living in Seattle who's worked for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and have been writing for as long as I can remember. I work with teens a lot, and what do you know… I used to be a teen myself too. My own life as a teen was rocky, full of so many emotional ups and downs that it resembled a ride on the Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags. In many ways, I've taken this opportunity to go back and write about the things I wish I knew when I was a teenager. You'll get to know me very well through the introductions to all of the teen stories in the book, especially since I tell it all—from my first real kiss to the disappointments of being a “late bloomer.” My hope is that my stories will draw you in, make connections with the teen stories, and help you to realize just how universal our experiences as teenagers are.
It's an honor for me to have you reading The Real Deal right now, and my hope is that you see yourself in the pages of this book, and that in some small way, you find comfort and inspiration inside.
© 2003-2007 Deborah Reber
