Title: Teenage Years
Author: John Scott
Publisher: YMO Edition Inc
ISBN: 978-1-77833-080-3
Pages: 24
Genre: Self-Help / Life Lessons
Reviewer: Beth Adams
Hollywood Book Reviews
Teenage Years, by author John Scott, comes out like a huge Navy battleship’s 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 gun – blasting these opinion-filled 19 pages into the minds of readers. By this, I mean the author holds nothing back as he goes on a powerful narration explaining the obstacles faced by teenagers in life. How does he know what’s going through a teenager’s mind? He was there – he was once a teenager with problems, issues, and caught-up in the whirlpool of life’s impacts upon naive minds not yet thinking like an adult but old enough to face serious consequences.
The series of topics are written with a no-holds-barred candid vernacular, talking in the way a tough father would do if his kid got into trouble and needed to be sat down to listen to a disciplined explanation of what will happen – how it will happen – and how lives will be changed if they don’t take to heart his strong advice. For example, kissing. Kissing is fun, but when a teenager’s hormones start popping like 4th of July fireworks, kissing leads to touching and sucking other body parts, and it only takes one time of having sex to conceive a baby. Then what? Dropping out of High School, not going to college and missing all of those college sports and activities, having to buy diapers, baby food, or if you just run away, getting thrown in jail for not paying child support. Jail means never having a job which requires some security clearance, and having hiring managers see that on your record. Or will you have to vacuum the fetus out of the mother’s womb – try living with that guilt the rest of your life. This is an example of the raw and impactful lessons shouted out in the narration of John Scott.
The many analogous sequences of warnings are told about drinking, drugs, addiction to sex, pornography, choosing the right friends, inter-racial-relationships, suicide – and many more situations which will come up and need to be soberly handled. Regarding suicide, he calls it “A permanent solution to a temporary problem.” John Scott reflects on his decision to join the Navy as being a beacon of good choices in his past; as boot camp had him grow up fast, and being deployed on the USS Saratoga CV-60 and USS Simon Lake AS-33, having traveled all around the Mediterranean, gave him guidance and exposed him to the real world in a way he can talk from a position of experience.
I liked his 10 Signs You Are Doing Well in Life which includes: Having a roof over your head; You ate today; You have a good heart; You wish good for others; Someone cares about you; You have clean water; You strive to do better; You have a dream; and most importantly – You are breathing. Somehow, he gets right down to the basics. “Good advice, well received is the sign of an intelligent person,” and a teenager reading this book will be given the facts from a man who knows what he is talking about. Teenage Years should be required reading for all teenagers on the edge of making bad decisions, as well as a tool to strengthen the moral values of teens who already know right from wrong.
Teenage Years is not only a valuable resource for those going through adolescence but also for educators, counselors, and parents who want to better connect with the youth in their lives. Scott’s ability to bring these themes to light makes this book a must-read for anyone invested in the well-being of teenagers.