Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Book Review: The Teen's Guide to World Domination (Nonfiction)

Bibliography

Shipp, Josh. The Teen's Guide to World Domination: Advice on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010. Ebook.

Summary

“Now is the time to stop trying to dominate the whole world and start trying to live your own. That’s where we’re headed. That’s what this book is all about.” (Shipp 9)
Motivational speaker, Josh Shipp, uses his life experiences to provide teens with instructions on how to live their lives. Part 1 is about taking charge and dominating your own life. In Part 2, Shipp informs the reader of different types of people, and how to deal with them. Part 3 is about how to dominate your own world through finding your own identity, dealing with parents, friends, dating, and making future plans. In Part 4, Shipp concludes the book with how to dominate your future, and how it is an ongoing process.

Critical Analysis
Josh Shipp provides an engaging guide for teens on how to take control of their lives, and how to deal with the challenges of being a teenager. This book is written to appeal to teenagers, and the language and straight talk that Shipp uses throughout the book delivers a clear message without being condescending or without talking down to teens. He incorporates personal stories that are relevant to the readers and provides life experiences that serve as excellent examples for teens. Although Shipp says that the book can be read straight through, he also encourages readers to go back to certain topics, or skip around as needed throughout the text.

Strengths and Weaknesses
The major strength of The Teen’s Guide to World Domination: Advice on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness is the practical, straight-up advice for teens on how they should take control of their own lives. From dealing with friendships, to sex, to taking care of oneself, Shipp encourages teens to be in charge of themselves in a positive, encouraging manner. One useful section is on the types of people that will try to bring teens down, and ways to cope with them. This is a book that I would recommend to every teen. And even though this book was written for teens, adults can still feel inspired from this book to be a better person. One weakness of the book is that sometimes Shipp rattles on about topics and gives too many long, drawn out examples of behaviors. Shipp should also encourage teens to share the book with their parents to aid with relationship issues during the teen years.

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