Review Detail

Right around the time that this book came out, the author (Bill OReilly) was embroiled in a bit of controversy regarding his personal behavior. Im not going to comment on that thats beyond my realm of expertise or interest but I will say that its a shame that the book took the fallout, to a certain extent. While I dont agree with every bit of advice for kids and teens in his book, theres a lot of good stuff in it and theres definitely a sense that he really said what he meant, whether his ideas were popular or not.

The survival guide touches on some of the more controversial teenage topics like sex, drugs, and even obesity without shying away from them. I was actually pretty surprised at what he was willing to tackle in the book. He also offers up personal anecdotes to drive his points home and the personal touch helps to make the advice more relevant.

A few things strike false notes with me, such as his labels of pinhead or smart operator to differentiate bad kids vs. good kids, but overall, this is a worthwhile book. If nothing else, it definitely gives you something to think about and perhaps, even something to talk about with your parents (or that bully down the street). Parents will even find a somewhat handy IM dictionary in the back of the book to help decode what things like IDTS (I dont think so) and JJA (just joking again) mean.