Ophelia Speaks

The book Ophelia Speaks by Sara Shandler is one of the best books I have ever read. The insight it gives to adolescent girls is one of a kind. The book, written in small essays and poems, is a collection of the experiences and memories of adolescent girls. The topics they have written about vary wildly, from rape to crushes to believing in yourself. It's refreshing to be able to open the book and relate to all the stories-with anything you are going through, this book lets you know that you are not alone in your struggles. You see not only yourself in the story, but all of the women you know as well. As I was reading it, I found myself saying, "Yeah, I know how that feels. I've been through that." It's cool because the author has framed each section with her own thoughts and experiences, so she becomes like a friend to you throughout the whole book. This is definitely a book every girl has got to read.

Ophelia Speaks is a literary response to Mary Pipher's bestselling and sometimes controversial work Reviving Ophelia which was published in 1994. In this book psychologist Pipher, who works closely with adolescent girls, documented what she thought were the key issues and struggles for teenage females growing up in America. She did this through cases studies and careful analysis. Author Sara Shandler, a high school student at the time, took it upon herself to recruit girls from all over the United States to write about all aspects of being young and female. She was not opposed to Mary Pipher's work. In fact, it spoke to her positively in many ways. She just thought it would be a good idea for girls to speak for themselves. The result is Ophelia Speaks, a collection of essays on a variety of topics that girls chose to write about...family, friends, diseases, sexuality, death, depression, religion and others. The book is excellent in two regards. First, the stories often take you deep into the heart and mind of adolescent girls. You are struck by how insightful and analytical theses girls are, then thrown back by how fragile and complex their feelings are. The stories, picked by Sara Shandler, are well-written and sincere although a few of them were written in the abstract and therefore lacked the clarity to fully understand the issue at hand. The second part of the book I found to be outstanding were the introductions to each topic. These were written by Sara Shandler herself. They gave perspective on the topic in question and introduced each contribution by giving the reader a taste of what was in store. She also adds a little of her own experience so you get to know her a bit. My life revolves around coaching teenage girls in basketball. I also coach young girls in basketball. A book like this adds to my understanding of teenage girls and therefore helps me work with them more effectively. One of the things Shandler says in the introduction is that teenage " girls are incredibly complicated. " When you read the stories and begin to understand this, I believe it lends itself to patience and understanding. But the book's greatest value probably lies in the support adolescent girls can feel from reading these stories. These girls do not hold anything back and many of their reactions to life's experiences are probably universally felt by a lot of teenage girls. Any teenage girl who is feeling isolated or finding life to be difficult would probably benefit from reading this book. I highly recommend it.

I picked this book off a list for a college class on Women's studies. I dreaded the fact that I had to finish an 300 page book in less than a week for an assignment. But once I began reading this book, I couldn't stop. I could identify with each and every chapter..if not from my own experience, then from experiences of my peers and friends. I read reviews from people that said it was awful because it shows only the dark side to teenage life. Well, that is the point of this book..to help teenage girls deal with the dark side, and to help them realize they are not alone in their problems. If this book had stories about girls with perfect teenage lives, it just would not have been the same. I would recommend that every parent buy this for their teenage girl...and that every teenage girl buys this for their parents. It is a book that will provide a better understanding between parents and children, because parents will realize that girls today have just as many problems as they probably had when they were our age, and that their children are not alone.

When I read some of these reviews they really upset me, especially when I saw most of them were by adults. When adults give such a horrible reviews to such a wonderful book, it only backs up the saying from Will Smith's song: Parents Just DON'T Understand! Any teenager who has expierenced the pressures of high school whether it be tempted to have sex or do drugs, or just the pressures of trying to have a social life and still keep up your grades. I got this book for my 14th birthday and left it in the bag for a few days, but then on a boring summer day when I had nothing else to do I picked up the book and started reading. I couldn't put it down! I fell in love with this book. It was such a relief to know there are girls out there going through the same things I am, things that other people might not even know about. Things only teenage girls will understand. After reading the book and gave it to my friends to read. My best friend called me after reading it, in tears, because the book was so real to her. There are parts in there that are hard to read, especialy if you haven't expierenced it, but you should read it anyway, to try to understand fellow girls. Ophelia Speaks is such a wonderful book, a great gift for any teenage girl. When I see the 1 star reviews of the book, I feel hurt because you're saying that they thoughts and feelings of these girls aren't real, but they're very real to me and all my friends. And probably to every teenage girl across the country. So even if you're a parent, try to understand and buy this book for the teenage girl you love. They will thank you.

I asked for Opehila Speaks for Christmas. When I started reading the introduction that day I felt that I could relate myself to the editor Sara Shandler. As a teenage girl of 15 I've expereinced some of the things the other girls have. There are times in my life where I've felt lonely and scared and at the same time I've had those innocent crushes on the boy you sit behind in history class. I cried during a few of the stories wanting to tell those girls that I had felt those very same emotions. In my eyes they were speaking for me when I didn't have the voice to speak. For all those people that looked at this book negatively it was becasue they saw it for what it didn't have not what it did have. They may have had the perfect childhood and couldn't understand the worst parts of life. I think that most teenage girls will read it and understand it, which is why I recommend this for every girl/woman for eleven up.