Book Review: All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis

Dr. Marian C. Fritzemeier, Ed.D. © 2013

Author, Speaker, Educator

I consider David Elkind's book, All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis, a sequel to The Hurried Child previously reviewed. He felt compelled to write this book since many of the hurried children were now teenagers. "The result is a staggering number of teenagers who have not had the adult guidance, direction, and support they need to make a healthy transition to adulthood," p. vii.

Three Parts: This three part book is divided into Part I Needed: A Time to Grow; Part II Given: A Premature Adulthood; and Part III Results: Stress and Its Aftermath. The book is well documented with references. An appendix provides a list of services for troubled teenagers.

Adolescents, Not Children. Elikind begins his book by tracing the history of teenagers in chapter 1: Teenagers in Crisis. The next chapter provides an excellent understanding of how adolescents think in Thinking in a New Way. The Perils of Puberty follows in chapter 3. Chapter 4 Peer Shock addresses the three ways adolescence differs from childhood.

Part II of All Grown up and No Place to Go addresses the Vanishing Markers that have contributed to "...the absence of a special place for teenagers in our society..." p. 111. Chapter 6 identifies the Postmodern Permeable Family followed by School for Scandal. Part III concludes with Stress, Identity, and the Patchwork Self; Teenage Reactions to Postmodern Stressors, with the last chapter providing valuable information for Helping Teenagers Cope.

A Must Read. If you are a parent, relative, educator, social worker, or a person who has contact with teenagers, this book is a must read. No one explains the cultural changes and how they've negatively affected adolescents like psychologist David Elkind.

Book Information: All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis by David Elkind, De Cappo Press, Revised Edition 1998. Barnes & Noble paperback $13.62.