Overall this book suffers from trying to do too much in too few pages. The author attempts to run the gamut from overcoming boredom in high school to peer pressure to substance abuse to preparing for college. As a result there is very little depth provided on any one subject. The book raises many questions on every page but provides little wisdom beyond the conventional.

How to Survive High School would have been interesting if survival were used as a metaphor throughout the book, but it is not. It addresses teenagers but does so at an extremely naïve level. Most teens are too savvy for this material to be entertained or captivated by the advice extended.

Advice like, go to assemblies and pay attention, has no hope of achieving the desired results. Anecdotal information is taken from actual teen interviews but there are no fresh insights, no real-world tales to fan the flames of teen imagination.

Material in this book is not well organized. Although there is a decent index, a search for raising your grades came up empty. I knew there was a page that I had flagged on the topic of low grades and was surprised to see it was not in the index. But then, like a lot of the material in the book, the advice given was paper-thin. Low grades? Work harder!

I doubt that teens can suffer through insights like "Do not be surprised if starting high school causes stress." I would not recommend this book to anyone expecting a true survival guide. On the up side it does contain a collection of concerns that might help a parent trying to organize his/her thoughts about what their teens may need to deal with. No teen that I know, however, would be willing or patient enough to read this book cover to cover.