Lost and Found: A Woman Revisits Eighth Grade

This intimate exploration of one girl's emotional journey fleshes out studies that show that girls in early adolescence not only undergo changes in personality but frequently also suffer a precipitous drop in classroom achievement. Grade eight, the precursor to high school, marked a turning point for the author, as we learn through the journal entries she kept and her retrospective judgment of 30 years later. The girl who started eighth grade in 1964 and was passionate about science and sports was, by year's end, conflicted and ambivalent about being ""acceptable."" Israeloff's personal voyage through the shoals of adolescence serves a dual purpose here: it traces the twisting path by which she ultimately found a career as a writer, and it puts a human face on troubling statistics regarding girls' achievement in school. Israeloff is a contributing editor at Parents magazine. (June)