Review - The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything) by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

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The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything)
Written by: Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein
Readers 9-12
Rated: Excellent (*****)
Review by: Lisa Haselton

The Truth is a glimpse into the diary and thoughts of a girl who is ten at the start of the story. We follow her through two school years and get a candid look at a ‘tween’s perspective of life.
Everyone can remember feeling that we knew more than our parents when we were kids.

In The Truth, the narrator gives us her opinion on falling in love, the damage done when parents argue, and her fears about getting older. She does so in a sincere and straightforward matter. She makes a list of truths that she wants to remember as she gets older because she fears aging has a negative effect. She knows adults must know the truths but that they somehow forgot, for how else can they possibly accept yelling at each other.

The unique voice along with the diary entry format make the book a quick read. It has an educational value which should be shared with all young girls and parents. The entries are direct and honest. The reader feels privy to the secret diary of the girl whose writing is personal, accessible. The observations made within the diary follow a natural progression of personal growth, which makes it feel more like non-fiction than fiction.

Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein is the originator of The Enchanted Self(R). She has been a positive psychologist in private practice and licensed in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts since 1981. She is currently in private practice in Long Branch, New Jersey with her husband, Dr. Russell M. Holstein.

I highly recommend reading The Truth. It is great for women of any age, and can definitely be appreciated by tweens and teens. It’s interesting to have memories of the tween years conjured up that are a mixture of enjoyable and hard to deal with.

Title: The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything)
Author: Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein
Publisher: Enchanted Self Press
ISBN: 978-09798952-0-3
Pages: 96
Price: $6.95