Good Morning! Here’s the Monday Morning Blog!
Welcome to 2022! Happy New Year!
Did you get a chance to touch base with that teen or young adult in your life last week? What did they do over holiday break? Did you do something with them? Or did they choose to spend time with their friends?
January’s Theme – National Mentoring Month
According to Mentoring.org, National Mentoring Month is based on a movement to raise awareness about the power of relationships and how they can help young people succeed.
Like I talked about in my November post about Making Choices, Teen Resource – Other people teens can talk to about tough choices, mentors are people who have real world experience in something your teen may have an interest in pursuing. A mentor may be able to give your teen some advice or help them get there.
In November I launched a Mentor page on my website dedicated to this topic. On this page, I include some mentoring themed information related to my chosen monthly blog theme. Here is a link to that page. Selma P. Verde – Mentor Page.
Book of the Month
With this month’s theme of mentoring, the book I chose to review is about an English teacher at a private prep school who challenges his students to seize the day and follow their dreams and passions. The book is called Dead Poets Society.
Selma’s Book Review
Book Title
Dead Poets Society
Author
N.H. Kleinbaum
Type of Book
Teen/Young Adult Fiction
Author Background
N.H Kleinbaum is a former newspaper reporter and editor. She adapted this book from the movie. One of few book and movie combos that is that way.
Summary of the book
Mr. John Keating was the new English Teacher at Welton Academy. He had a different approach to teaching his students as he challenged them to make their lives extraordinary. Looking for a way to do just that, his students resurrected the Dead Poets Society, a secret club that had been at Welton when Keating attended school there. It gave the students a way to explore themselves outside the constraints of school and their parents.
Reaction to the book
I really enjoyed this book. Since this book is adapted from the movie, it follows the story of the movie pretty closely. The idea of having a teacher inspire their students to figure out who they are and to become the best they can be really speaks to me as a mentor. Sometimes the expectation of others holds teens and adults back from exploring who they could be. At this private prep school, the staff and some of the parents hold ideas to mold their students into the kind of people they want them to be, which may not be who they really are.
I would definitely recommend this book to any teen or young adult reader. The movie would be a great option if they are more into watching a movie.
Link to the author
If you want to learn more about the author, here is a link to Wikipedia N.H. Kleinbaum
Link to the book
If you want to purchase a copy of Dead Poets Society,, here is a link to Amazon – Dead Poets Society. Or you can pick it up from one of your local bookstores or shop Bookshop.org and have the purchase credited to them.
Looking for a Teen Coming of Age Series?
Both of the books in The Way Series focus on high school and the challenges teens can face. Book one, The Hard Way, focuses on peer pressure and making choices with the approval of peers being a factor. Book two, Shawn’s Way, shows a freshman in high school navigating his way through being the target of a bully. Check out the books tab of my website for more information, Selma P. Verde – Books
Mentoring and Resources
Have you seen these tabs on my website? One is my Mentor page which I mentioned earlier has some mentor statements related to this month’s theme National Mentoring Month. And the teen resource links that I mention in my monthly Teen Resource post can all be found on the Resource tab or through a link on the Mentor page. Be sure to take a look and let me know what you think!
Subscribe to my Email List
If you would like to learn a little more about me and what I do behind the scenes as an author, blogger and mentor, subscribe to my email list through my website. Emails will arrive in your email box weekly and start later this month.
Have a great week!
