The Middle School Years: Achieving the Best Education for Your Child, Grades 5-8

I'm weighing in as a mom of teens, advice columnist for Girls' Life, and author of teen books to say that I think Hernandez has done a great job and that her book can make a difference in your son or daughter's education. I've never met Hernandez, but her tone is friendly, practical, and straightforward, and her tips are not just the same-old-same-old. For instance, rather than urging kids to use a highlighter when reading books they own, she stresses that it's better to use an actual pen to write brief comments and questions in the margins. Here's hoping your kids get the most out of their middle school years. As William Butler Yeats put it: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." --Carol Weston, author of GIRLTALK and FOR GIRLS ONLY and the MELANIE MARTIN diaries (...)

This is practical advice that is easy to follow and so necessary for helping your middle school child. This book gave me the confidence to get my 13 year old to get out his notebooks, show me what he had to do, and told him that if his grades were not acceptable, I would be checking his notebook more frequently. I realize I only have a short window of time until I will leave it totally up to him and this book gives great suggestions for getting your student on their way to a successful educational experience.

Everyday you read about the host of problems with our educational system. Finally, someone has written a book for parents that gives them specific and helpful advice for helping their children reach their potential. I'm already a big fan after A is for Admission which is still THE guide for selective college admissions. As such, I was especially happy to see this more general book that attacks such issues as what kind of involvement parents should have in their children's homework, how much help they should give their children, how to deal with a variety of problems that crop at up both private and public schools and how to handle teacher conflicts in a diplomatic matter. Even more helpful is the reading list and the grade by grade math guide that will help you see if your child's school is on target and providing a strong curriculum. The reading list is useful even for high school students since she includes lots of advanced choices. The writing style is lucid and sharp. I'm grateful to the author for sharing her years of educational experience with readers who have a vested interest in our children's education. If more parents read her book, we'd have many fewer problems in our schools.

Ms. Hernandez's book, The Middle School Years, is a great parental blueprint for the middle school years and beyond. We have found ourselves referring back to the text often as new developmental issues with our middle school student arise (e.g., school choice, standardized testing, study skills, etc). Ms Hernandez's observations are insightful and clearly based on substantial experience in the field. It is uncanny how she anticipates the concern, questions and anxiety that parents of middle school students have, and then, proposes wise counsel on the relevant issues.Parents often say that the second child going through the school system is the one who benefits the most, because the parents learned a great deal from the first child's school experience. Ms. Hernandez's book, The Middle School Years, is like having a first child through the school system already.

This book is a must-read for any parent or student interested in getting the most out of school. It provides a practical, common sense approach to achieving the best education possible for any type of student. The author is obviously enthusiastic about learning for learning's sake. This is NOT a book about the ten tricks needed to ace the SATs so that you can get into an Ivy League school, get a diploma, and get a job on Wall Street making a million dollars a minute. It IS a book about how to learn, an art which is fast being forgotten in our mercenary society. It is apparent that she has had years of hands-on experience as an educator and she is able to pinpoint the key elements necessary for all students to approach their studies in an organized and productive fashion. What's more, her writing style is lucid and enjoyable and the material is never dry. The scope of the book is comprehensive, with chapters dealing with everything from how to organize a notebook and homework, to plagiarism, to extacurricular activities, and everything in between. I particulary enjoyed the anecdotes culled from the author's own experiences. The suggested reading lists for different grades at the end of the book are very useful. I only wish this book had been available for me when I was a student!