Anticipating Adolescence: How to Cope with Your Child's Emotional Upheaval and Forge a New Relationship Together

This book attempts to prepare parents for the normal but often frustrating challenges presented by adolescents. It covers such topics as sexual identity, self-esteem, drugs and alcohol, and power struggles with parents. It also touches on divorce, blended families, eating disorders and suicide. Unfortunately, the book does not deliver what's promised, and it reads like a rough draft. The chummy first-person style is marred by loosely organized paragraphs, glaring non sequiturs, redundancies, unnecessary recaps and run-on sentences. And why do the authors choose to include a wordy, esoteric aside on the ineffectiveness of classical Freudian psychoanalysis, an uncommon treatment for today's teenager, yet skimp on the universal adolescent preoccupation with body image? This kind of inconsistency typifies the sloppiness and lack of rigor that undermines the book's credibility and usefulness. Gabriel is a professor of clinical psychiatry at NYU Medical Center; Wool is a psychotherapist-psychoanalyst. They previously coauthored The Inner Child. Author tour. (Feb.)