Review: Break These Rules
Break These Rules is a collection of essays by young adult and middle grade authors, edited by Luke Reynolds, about just what you would guess – breaking rules and, while, I’m way older than the target audience, I really appreciated the messages contained in these pages.
Many of the essays are about subjects you would expect – be true to yourself, speak up, and think for yourself but a few of the essays have unexpected messages, like Sarah Zarr’s on talking about religion, Jennifer Ziegler’s that encourages boredom, and Chris Barton’s that says it’s okay not to go to college right after high school.
Young people have heard most of these messages already from their parents and/or teachers but we all know they tune them out on a regular basis. Many of the authors use stories from their own lives to communicate the message they’re conveying. Hopefully young readers will relate to those stories and absorb the messages. Grab this book for any teens struggling to find their way.
I will link this up to Booking Mama’s Saturday feature, Kid Konnection. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.
Review copy provided by Chicago Review Press. I am an Indiebound Affiliate.
Oh I like the sound of this! I wonder if my niece is too old for it already.
This looks very cool. I’d be interested to hear what you think the age range is, too.
I’d say middle school and high school.
I just looked it up and Booklist says 12 and up. Thanks!
Encourages boredom? That would probably be the section I’d be most interested in reading.
This sounds like something my oldest son needs to read. He is a rule follower to a fault!
Kathy, this sounds like a valuable collection of essays. Terrific review!
That’s the kind of book that is so good to read!
This sounds like an intereresting and valuable collection of essays. Thank you for sharing, Kathy!
I am loving the cover – it sounds like a sweet read.
I can think of a few young relatives who would like this book.
this sounds empowering
kinda nice to have young folk expressing and sharing their lives
This sounds really good. I needed this as a teen – I tried being perfect all the time and never wanted to break ANY rules! Which of course isn’t possible – so I regularly felt that I was failing at it. When my niece gets a bit older I might get this for her.
I hadn’t heard of this one. Sounds like a great line-up of authors. We are starting to talk about college in our house and so I’d be interested to read Chris Barton’s story.
These all sound like great lessons for kids!
What a great idea for a book! I’d love for Booking Daughter to read this.