Rating: 
Summary: Quit Being Brainwashed
Review: As an unschooling mom, I totally thought this book rocked! I find it especially significant that Ms. Llewellyn is a trained educator, and that she herself found the system she was teaching in was unable to truly educate students, based upon the constraints placed on students in school. I love the faith she places in our young people, who truly are smart enough to know what they want and educate themselves. I hope everyone will read this book and quit being brainwashed by society to believe what they want you to believe. A high school diploma or a college diploma is not necessary to your success and happiness, if you are willing to open your mind and explore new possibilities.
Rating: 
Summary: THE COOLEST BOOK!!!
Review: First of all, the reason I gave this book 4 starz (rather than 5) is because Grace Llewellyn doesn't seem very open-minded about any type of education besides unschooling. I definently don't have anything against unschooling, it's just that different types of school work for different people, so it's not really fair to pound conventional school. Everything else was absolutely fantastic!!! I am surprised it is not NY Times bestseller by now. I know a lot of people who need to read this book. The Teenage Liberation Handbook is quite a masterpiece in my opinion, because it is written for teenagers without once being condescending!!!!!:) The purpose of the TLH is way more than the what the title professes: it not only tells you how to quit school and start learning, it also inspires you to actually get off your...an DO suff. Unlike school 'survival guides' (that encourage you to stay IN school) the boost of happiness and confidence the TLH gives you remains mint fresh. Another thing: Has Grace Llewellyn written any novels? She is one of the wittiest and most entertaining writers I have ever read. She makes the TLH just plain fun to read. This book is not fantasy stuff. I totally encourage you to read it!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Public or Private--Schools Are a Matter of Stomp Thy Neighbo
Review: Grace Llewellyn's TEENAGE LIBERATION HANDBOOK is not an opinion. It is a real way to escape the dog-eat-dog hell that is the philosophy of all schools. There's nothing honorable about honors programs. It's elitism that enslaves good human beings. Llewellyn's book is a good place to learn how to destroy the National Honor Society and the Beta Club. I only wish that the book had been out 40 years ago. Going to school as a child did one thing--destroyed a bright cheerful human being who has spent decades trying to recuperate. I read her book four years ago and have found many things that were useful even to a 60 year old man with five accredited college degrees and numerous certificates and diplomas from non-accredited schools. Get your kid out of those damnable breeders of rotted intellect! Get Llewellyn's book!
Rating:
Summary: Read For Yourself
Review: I have read this book and would like to point out several erroneous ideas of other reviewers. First, I read the Teenage Liberation Handbook at age 17 and was not in any way convinced or persuaded that this book endorses the idea of experimenting with illegal substances, though it does mention them rather briefly. Second, the ridiculous opinion that a more suitable title for this book would be "Let's skip college and live on a farm handbook," is highly implausible: humorous, yes, accurate, no. This reviewer suggests that the book is useless to any reader who aspires to attend college, and who doesn't plan to live on a farm. I find, however, that the book gets fairly intimate with the process of getting into college (e.g. there's a chapter allocated to just that), and (contrary to the picture on the front cover) it doesn't touch much, if at all, on farm life. It also suggests other resources on college such as the book "Homeschooling for Excellence" by David Colfax and Micki Colfax and others such as "And What About College?: How Homeschooling Can Lead to Admissions to the Best Colleges & Universities" by Cafi Cohen. Personally, I quit high school, attended college, and currently live in a downtown apartment. I also know unschoolers who live in urban as well as rural lives and who attend colleges, some as young 16. I find this book to be a beneficial resource for creating the life that you aspire to have, whatever that might be, without the red tape of the school system (A system which I found to be clearly explicated in the book "The Underground History of American Education" by the award winning former teacher John Taylor Gatto--which I don't think is available through Amazon.com). And lastly, to the reviewer who suggested that the author must be a high school failure, Ms Llewellyn explains her perfectly ordinary (or should I say, "above average") educational background from high school through college in the first part of the book. The author's view illustrates the system's failures for many students, and this book suggests a viable alternative to a failing system. Rather than be part of a problem, Ms Llewellyn elected to find a solution to it, and employs "unschooling" as a feasible solution (which happens to be a very rich way of life for many teenagers already). If you are satisfied with your (or your children's) current school system then this book may not be for you. However, even if you are in school and plan to remain there or are unschooling or homeschooling already, you may find the book helpful in helping yourself. I suggest you decide for yourself. Why not try your library? You have nothing to loose except class time (just kidding-and a borrowed book.)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful unschooling manual
Review: I just finished this book after unschooling my children for the past 6 years and neither has attended a school. It has reaffirmed my belief that unschooling CAN work and my kids will not flip burgers all their lives.
The book goes through every subject and gives lots of resources for unschooling it. I wish I had found this book sooner and I would have had many less sleepness nights, worrying about unschooling versus "school at home"! I am purchasing a copy to use as a reference manual in our library. Lots of volunteer organizations, internships, business ideas. Just an awesome resource for unschoolers.
Rating:
Summary: I was outraged
Review: I was a very fortunate person as I knew Grace Llewellyn personally and was privelaged to read a copy of the book when it first came out. When I she told me about the book I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders, "that's Grace" I thought. I felt certain that I would find the book well written but would disagree with it right down to the premise. I had an excellent High School experience and held a BA from a very good private college. I felt that schooling had been to my beneifit.But when I read the book my reaction was one of sorrow and outrage that I had not had this book when I was a teenager. I gave it to my Mom to read and she is now a huge supporter of Ms. Llewellyn's work as well. This is significant as my mother is a former community college administrator. Reading this book is risky, dangerous, frightening. It will open your eyes to truths you don't want to know and ideas you don't want to think. It will make you question the systems we have set up for education. It might make you quit school, it might make you wish you had. Anthony Valterra
Rating:
Summary: too old now
Review: I'm too old and jaded to appreciate this book now. But, in an effort to reach those who aren't, let me say this: Read this book!! It changed the way I thought about learning, thinking, and living when I read it, and I was out of high school at the time. I was even a former homeschooler, but this book still presented ideas that were new to me. TTLH has had a profound impact on the way I experience education, and that has stayed with me throughout college and graduate school. What am I saying: This book is inspiring. If you want to be inspired, read it. If you prefer to remain inspiration-less, don't read it. This book will change you, but you have to let it. It will do nothing if you refuse to let it. I know. I recommended this book to everyone I knew, but no one took to it like I did. Not a single person. Most people just thought I was an idiot for talking about "unschooling" and "self education." Every time I used the word "autodidact" I got a strange look. Sometimes that's how you tell the really good books... the strange looks you get when you talk about them. The original edition is much, much better than the newer version because it is more comprehensive and more real. It feels more honest. But even if you read the flashier edition, take the ideas to heart. Consider them.
Rating:
Summary: And one chapter later...
Review: It took me about a chapter to realize that I truly hate school, as much as I've said otherwise, and no matter how many times I've been moved up I'm not going to get anywhere. Now, I still haven't finished, and I am already feeling a mix of terrible miffedment, depression, and determination to get out of this place. Thank you unschooled cousin Loopy for lending me this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Wanna live on a farm? No? Then don't buy this book!
Review: Let me break down the main point of this book. I will not even talk about all the piles of anti-school rants, or even try and decide why modern schools stink so bad. I am here to tell you the big secret of what this book suggests you do instead of going to school. And that secret is: Live on a farm. This book suggests that instead of goto college that you should find a farmer who is looking to go away on a long trip, and is in need of someone to look after their farm.
That's it. While a few confused young people might think that this book sounds like a great idea, the truth is that this book should be called "Let's skip college and live on a farm handbook." Even this book admits that high school is a must, and simply suggests that dimwitted teens simply skip college and live on someone's farm. That's it. That is exactly what this book suggests you do with your life. This book offers no plan B if you can't find a farm to live on (the book suggests looking in the back pages of farm magazines! WTF!) What if you don't want to live on a farm? What if you live in a major city? What are all the kids in Seatlle or New York supposed to do? And what do you do when the farmer comes back? This book offers no plans for the future, it just tells you to drop out of school, and beg some stranger to let you live on their farm. WTF!?!
This book is aimed toward the hippie wanna be's who love to do drugs, listen to punk rock, and always talk about how one day they are going to goto a protest. Don't think for one second that you will be able to read this book, drop out of school, and still be able to afford to live in a house or enjoy modern coviences like food or electricity to power your I-Pods. All you D-students out there, here's a nickel worth of free advice: Stay in school, it beats begging for spare change in the streets. And don't believe everything you hear or read. You can't drop out of school, never work a day in your life, be a drug addict, daydream about becoming the next Tony Hawk, and still have enough money to be able to live indoors and play your X-Box all day.
Or do you wanna live on some stranger's farm?
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and well- researched!
Review: My only concern about this book is that if a teenager is trying to pursuade her parents to allow her rise out of conventional school she'll need to find another book to give them in order to broach the subject. This book, which is extremely informative for teens and dead-on to those of us in the choir, may be too in-your-face for those who have never heard of nor considered homeschooling as an option for their child. A parent must be approached carefully about the education of their student, since considering a change of this magnitude necessitates a deep examination of all those things most earlier generations have been told all their lives. A "radical" book is always attractive to young adults, but can be off-putting to their parents. Still, the author has paid her dues and has come out the other side informed and with a clear sense of purpose: To sway teenagers to search for a better education by taking control of their own schooling. It's an admirable endeavor and one with which I agree. But as a parent, I had to get beyond the confrontational approach in the beginning. Still, Llewellyn's intended audience IS teenaged, so I persuaded myself to give it 5 stars rather than 4 -- Powerful stuff.
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