The Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain: A Growth Mindset and Brain Development Book for Young Teens and Their Parents

Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain, by JoAnn Deak, Ph.D., and Terrence Deak, Ph.D. is an informative manual explaining adolescence and the impact it has on a child growing into an adult. Although the subject covered is technical, the easy to relate to comparisons of cell body to Ipod and exercises that involve ice cream keep it fresh and age appropriate.The manual explains in detail what adolescence is and how it affects the entire body, starting in the brain. By comparing the brain to a car, it covers brain functions, nervous system, spinal cord, and cells. It keeps the reader entertained with mind blowing inserts like, "If the cell body were as big as a baseball, then its axon would extend nearly 2416 feet! That is eight times as tall as the Statue of Liberty, twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and almost as tall as the tallest skyscraper on Earth." It explains empathy and the importance of social interaction as a critical growth aspect.While this book gives the adolescent permission to be a normal teenager, it also offers healthy suggestions to fuel the brain and cope with the intensity of puberty (including temptation of alcohol and drugs). Freya Harrison's illustrations are dynamic, and balance the content with ease.A technical yet engaging read that provides a simplified explanation to a confusing subject for many!

As a mother of four children and grandmother of 3 children, I so wish Dr. Deak's books would have been available years ago. This is the sequel to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, and every bit as informative and inspiring for adolescent minds, ages 10-20, as her former book was for ages 1-10. If you have an adolescent you love who will soon enter adolescence or has already arrived into this challenging, ever evolving age, this book is a must! The data and illustrations are fun while using scientific research to provide facts for helping you to understand the brain's behavior and growth during this time. This is an important read for adults, but, more importantly, fun for their kids to explore. My granddaughter is still in the Fantastic Elastic stage, but she loves the first book and has used the information to understand why she was struggling with a math problem, and voila! her struggle ended! She and my other two grandchildren will be receiving their own copies of The Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain. Dr. Deak has joined forces with her neuropsychologist nephew, Dr. Terrence Deak, who does nothing but enhance the already amazing concepts from her own research. What a team! I highly recommend this book!

This is a rich little book to help adolescents learn about what is going on with their brains at this stage of their lives. My middle schoolers are doing well with it. Nice graphics and fonts make it interesting for kiddos!

The Drs. DEAK will knock your socks off! They not only explain WHAT is going on in the adolescent brain but WHY. This is the kind of book that should be discussed in parent book clubs, shared in the faculty lounge, and make it on every student's summer reading list!Our elementary school students have loved Your Fantastic Elastic Brain...can't wait to hear what our middle school students have to say about The Owner's Manual. And if you haven't heard Dr. JoAnn Deak speak in person- make that your New Year's resolution.

Firstly I should mention that the quality is such that it is virtually impossible to read on a kindle touch. It is not formatted like a standard book and comes across more like a pdf file. I was able to read it easier on the ipad.At first glance my teenagers (18 & 16) found the tone and examples to childlike so perhaps it's better aimed at younger teens.Sadly, due to the difficulty reading it with the existing formatting, I returned the book.

Pretty much a picture book got this for summer reading during school I personally would not get it again but maybe your into that kinda thing

Ibought a book for each and every middle school student in my school. What a pleasure to watch them reading it and then asking intelligent questions about the contents to Dr. Deak. Young adolescents are hungry for information that explains to them what is happening with their bodies, minds, and emotions -- and the "Owner's Manual" provides that in a straightforward yet entertaining way. This is a MUST read for young adolescents and those who love them.

Parts of this we're interesting, to be certain. But the whole thing was distractingly childish and not appealing to my 13 year old. The juvenile illustrations belie the degree of mental capacity necessary to grasp the concepts. Overall, I didn't find this book appealing. I'm going to give it to the local Youth Counseling Center, as they will certainly have an audience for it.

Impossible to read on the Kindle paperwhite. The text is tiny and can only be viewed as double page spreads in landscape format. The text can't be enlarged either. Shame. Returned for a refund.

I bought this way ahead of time for my niece (she is only 9), so I cannot review from the actual reader's experience. I however, thoughtthat the book was in excellent condition & seemed to be very well written and the illustrations very elaborate. It also arrived way aheadof schedule.