As adults, we like to think we have a good idea of what the world may have in store for our teenagers, but the fact of the matter is there's a vast divide between what we perceive as dangerous and what our teens are actually up against. Teenagers (ages 13 - 19) face unique challenges when it comes to situational awareness. These challenges are only exacerbated by the constant physical and biological changes teens are subjected to. As young people learn to deal with these changes, they begin to explore the limits of their individuality. Unfortunately, this process often involves rebellious behavior and unnecessary risk-taking. The key to keeping teens safe during this time is to keep them alert and engaged with their environment. Teenagers have to understand that real personal safety isn't about being scared of what lies around the next corner. It requires confidence that if something bad were about to happen, that they have these skills: Ability to identify the problem early Competence to develop a plan of action Power to control their fear Aptitude to implement that plan Spotting Danger Before It Spots Your Teens is designed around the principles of positive communication, trust, and teamwork. It's written specifically to set parents' minds at ease and allow teens to confidently explore their independence, secure in the fact that they can spot dangerous situations before they happen and take the necessary steps to ensure their own well-being.

Prayer can be your greatest asset and source of wisdom in raising teenagers in today's world. Now expanded, this book features updated content on issues like pornography, addiction, self-harm, anxiety, rebellion, technology use, dealing with disappointment, and more. It's never been tougher to be a teen--or the parent of one. Thankfully, from your teen's first date to the next time they borrow the car keys, you can take your concerns to God through prayer. Drawing on the power of God's Word, this updated and expanded edition of Praying the Scriptures for Your Teens equips you to pray about the difficult issues your teen may face: Relationship challenges Doubts about their faith Depression Rejection Sexual purity Substance abuse Eating disorders . . . and much more This book also guides you in praying about everything from your teen's character and safety to the purposes and plans that God has for his or her future. Filled with engaging illustrations, biblical insights, and compelling prayer principles, Praying the Scriptures for Your Teens shows how to make the Bible your source for prayers that can powerfully influence your teen's life. With a grace-filled approach and a warm, personal style, author Jodie Berndt encourages you that there is not a need your teen will face that God has not already thought of, and provided for, in his Word--and that, no matter how far away our kids may be, they are never out of his reach.

American Spaz The Novel is a coming-of-age story with girls and love and death fists and knives and guns. After going through double tragedies as a child Henry Kreiser grows into a teenager he does not want to be. It starts in 1978 in a suburb of Philadelphia and continues on the farms of a rural boarding school for disadvantaged children. It ends on the tough streets of Trenton, New Jersey in 1988.American Spaz is auto-biographical fiction by Greg Kieser and chronicles a decade of his life from 7 to 17 years old - during which time he lost both parents, moved from place to place, and did whatever he needed to do to survive. As the youngest of six children he had many opportunities, during that decade, to rely on, and sometimes reject, the love of family.A newspaper article about Kieser 's late father speaks to The Truth behind the fiction. And, in the short film How I Became a Spaz (and you can too) Kieser himself attempts to explain his unique approach to achieving social and financial success, while summarizing the steps others can take. An interview with the author further allows him to elaborate on these subjects and share his outlook on storytelling. All three - the article, the film and the interview - can be found at www.americanspaz.com

If you are a parent of a teenager, you will have experienced the frustration and bemusement that their strange and emotional logic creates. But can we really just blame it on their hormones and wiring? This book is based on the research used in a popular and effective nine-week course run by the author aimed at equipping parents with the understanding of why teenagers behave as they do and explores effective tools take away a lot of stress in dealing with them. It looks at how parenting styles and different interactionist models impact on our relationship with these emotional and argumentative beings. The 'teen in the greenhouse' looks at the world through the filter of a teenage brain and uses a range of neurological and socio-psychological models to explore how adults can moderate their interactions with them to make parenting teenagers easier. It explores ways in which the teenage brain uses and misuses emotions to make misguided decisions and how we can help support better decisions being made and reduce arguments. The book provides a thorough and at times humorous exploration of what is happening to the teenage brain and how this impacts on those who help them.

It might be said that adolescence as a process occurs because of a conflict of expectation between developing individuals and the society in which they live. Its onset can be defined by arrival of puberty but its termination is much harder to objectively define. This is a book that seeks to help those going through the process of mid-adolescence either from the point of view of the adolescent or their families. It attends to the serious strains that may have to be borne if the picture portrayed is to have any realism. Examined are many of the issues that adolescents may face including: their emotional and intellectual development; variation in physiological development and what this can mean to them; the importance of the peer group; the emergence of disturbed mental behavior; the frequency of eating disorders; self-harming; and suicide.The You and Your Child Series is aimed especially at parents but this book will also appeal to adolescents and those working with this group.

Adolescence! Just the word can cause us to both cringe and chuckle whether it is remembering our own rites of passage or dealing with the wonderful, weird and often totally exasperating sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors, siblings, students or just the kid behind us in line.This book is based on quotes from those same youngsters as they describe their fears, frustrations and dreams. You may be surprised to read that a thirteen-year-old boy would sometimes hug his parents' pillow when they are not at home or that a pre-teen wakes up and "breathes in the new day."As you read the thoughts of these young people, you will be presented with an opportunity to recall how you felt at that age in a variety of situations and to consider how those feelings may affect you today.It doesn't matter how or why this book came into your hands, you will never think of adolescents the same. As you reflect on the metamorphosis from child to young adult that we all go through, you will be reminded of the miracle that we do survive with a little love, patience and understanding from the people we meet on our journey.

As seen in Time, USA TODAY, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and on CBS This Morning, BBC, PBS, CNN, and NPR, iGen is crucial reading to understand how the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation. With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today's rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s up to the mid-2000s, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person-perhaps contributing to their unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. With the first members of iGen just graduating from college, we all need to understand them: friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation-and the world.