Ophelia Speaks : Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self

Rating:
Summary: A little too dark, but poignant nonetheless
Review: This book touches on most of the issues that affect teens today, but it could have done so without Shandler's commentary. Wonderful descriptions, and honest views on everything from crushes to suicide.

Rating:
Summary: Editor/author needs to back off
Review: Sara Shandler includes a number of powerful (and many melodramatic) teenage essays and poems in her book, but her introductions to each chapter and sub-chapter get old very quickly. Enough self-righteousness and self-disclosure: just give us the girls' voices and not authorial commentary.

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Summary: An Honest, Courageous Account of Adolescent Female Voices
Review: 'Ophelia Speaks' is brimming with valid, powerful insights and experiences -- so much so that it overwhelms the reader a bit, dulling the effect that these sharp, heartfelt girls might be able to have had their pieces stood alone. Shandler is better suited as editor than author -- her ramblings on her own life become sophomoric and tedious. Still, to Shandler's credit, from the dark passages dealing with the most difficult aspects of female adolesence, to the honeyed, tounge-in-cheek prose of innocent desires, there is much to be relished and learned within 'Ophelia's' pages.

Rating:
Summary: if i could give this more stars i would
Review: Ophelia Speaks is the most honest and revealing book I've ever read about being a teenage girl-- and I am one. Anyone calling this book "trite" is out of touch with our reality. In Ophelia Speaks teen girls disclose their personal stories with courage and insight; and compiled by a teen herself! What more could you ask for?

Rating:
Summary: Amazing and intense view of teenage girl life
Review: When I find out about this book, I brough it inmediatley. It was a litle more intense than what I expected but every word was true. I could relate whith many of this stories, whowever I wouldn't recomend this book to anyone under 14 because of it's sometimes strong content.

Rating:
Summary: trivial, smarmy, a total waste of time to read.
Review: What else is there to say, this is a pretentious book, which says even less than possible. It would be more suitable to appear in a teen magazine, or even Cosmopolitan magazine. I give Ophelia Speaks a minus 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Rating:
Summary: A Social Worker's "Adult" Opinion
Review: This book is a good resource for young girls and for adults, especially when dealing with the complexity of being a teenager and a young woman. However, I found this book somewhat disturbing in that many of these young girls are going through ALOT! It is a good read for all teenage girls, in that it hits issues that they can relate to/identify with, or at the very least learn from. I believe as parents and community members we can do a lot more!

Rating:
Summary: the greatest representation of real teens problems in life.
Review: I find that this book is the greatest representation of teenage problems. Many books are written by adults that do research, but these stories are personally written of first hand experiences and of friends' experiences. A plus is that the author was a teenager when she first collected the stories to put this book together, and I am sure that she had some of the same reactions and experiences that these girls have had. All in all, i think that this was possibly the greatest book out right now.

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Must Read
Review: This book tells the bare truth. I read it in two days! It really helped me realize my problems and get help. It's a definate must read!!!

Rating:
Summary: Its A Book Worth Reading
Review: "Ophelia Speaks" is frank, honest and at the same time entertaining. The stories submitted are touching and some of them really makes us think about our own lives. The issues discuss in the book are relevent not only to teens but to adults as well. Its definately a book not to be miss.