Sunday, October 16, 2011

Young Adult Literature - It Gets Better


Savage, D., & Miller, T. eds. (2011). It gets better: Coming out, overcoming bullying, and creating a
     
       life worth living. New York: Dutton.

It Gets Better includes a wide range of people telling the stories of how they overcame bullying and survived high school.  On the surface, the book is aimed at gay and lesbian teenagers to let them know that life does get better and they shouldn't take the road to suicide because they are different.  However, the book has a great message for anyone who has ever experienced bullying in high school.  Basically, it is important to let kids know that just because life is hard right now, that doesn't mean that you can't overcome it and have a great life in the future.  The book includes stories from many famous gay and lesbians, as well as from ordinary people who succeeded in life, to straight politicians, including the president.  Each person who contributed to the book tries to show support to teenagers who are bullied for their differences.
I think the book is very relevant to today.  Bullying is something that, unfortunately, goes on constantly in our schools, often with tragic results.  Bullies often push their victims to drastic measures.  The only downfall to the book was that it seemed almost like overkill.  I think that the book almost had too many contributions.  I think a smaller number of well-written contributions would have been better.

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