Girl Talk
All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You  
By Carol Weston

        Carol Weston has a great voice for talking to teens. She doesn't try to sound too hip, but doesn't launch into long nags, either. And she never forgets that this is a self-help book and she's giving advice.

     It's good advice, too. I would have loved this book when I was trying to navigate the whitewater of adolescence. Back then, self-help books for adolescence were so preoccupied with what nice girls don't do that they were too embarrassed to even be coherent.

     Although it was far from being authoritarian, I appreciated that this wasn't an "anything goes" book, either. Weston is frank about the reality that actions have consequences, whether you're talking about dieting, how to treat your friends, or sex. It's straightforward, lively and even funny in spots. Teens will also enjoy the real-life letters Weston answers and the real scenarios, both from Weston's own life and the lives of teens she's met. Overall, this is a book with authenticity. I'm saving this one for my daughter.