Book Review: Raise Them Up

I'll be doing informal book reviews from time to time, mostly for professional resources.

Raise Them Up: The Real Deal on Reaching Unreachable Kids by Kareem Moody with Anitra Budd, published by The Search Institute ISBN: 1-57482-866-5

Positives:
Mr. Moody is not an academic, he is the director of a program for at-risk youth in Little Rock, AK. Raise Them Up is filled with stories of how he used the strategies in the book with teens in his youth programs. His main suggestions are ones that form the foundation for anyone that works with youth:

• Listen to them
  
• Let them know they have value
• Set high expectations
• Help them put their education and skills to use
  

Drawbacks:
Raise Them Up has little to add for those with experience working with youth or familiar with the 40 Developmental Assets. Additionally, the recreation center and library environments are different in some key ways. For example, while effective and creative Mr. Moody's punishment for horseplay would probably not fly in most libraries. I am also a firm believer that one does not need a similar background to the youth they serve to be effective, however, many of the examples in Raise Them Up imply that one's own "war stories" are a powerful tool. That might be very true, but not necessarily relevant to all situations.

Recommended For: New librarians with little experience working with this age group or administrators without a background in youth services who would like to have more positive interactions with teen patrons.