Growing up as a Functional Adult is not easy. There are problems to be tackled. Not always the biggest one, but often as a routine.

As an Indonesian growing up in Indonesia, I learned the hard way to face my adulthood. From cleaning my room to registering my tax report, those are all things I learned by doing with zero experience before. No one has thought me. I have to face it by myself. So, when I read Life Skills Book for Teens, deep down in my heart, I wish I had read this book when I was young.

Mauren Stiles composed Life Skills Book for Teens as easy-to-read and chew reading materials. She gives young readers daily information from cleaning their room, calling plumber, bringing their car to the workshop, signing up for health insurance, and many more. Every topic she brings up always ends up with checklists at the end of the chapter to make sure all readers understand the content.

I love how this book presents our everyday life problems into something insightful. As an adult myself, I find this book helpful. There are some tips that I have just learned. Oh, I wish I had read that when I was young! I won't face my remote life (I mean, to live alone far from my parents) with guessing and Googling.

Thank you NetGalley and Callisto Publishing for this ARC!

I love the concept of this book but I'm not sure it delivers. A lot of the information isn't relevant to my teens as Canadians and much of the basic info, they already know and have for some time. It felt very, very simple (brush your teeth and wash your hand) without any weight to actually navigating life.

Very straightforward book outlining common topics for teens. It ranges from healthcare to ride sharing. Each chapter has a checklist at the end highlighting each section’s strong points. This book would be helpful but I’ve seen more “interactive” life skills books that would capture this population’s attention better.

This was comprehensive and a good guide for teens on the very basics, but I think this is more aimed at 8th-10th graders (13-15) than kids that much older than 16. However, this is based on my own experience and knowledge about this age and some teens may not have the same educational background. Regardless, this is a good primer for people who may not have had the knowledge or skills previously taught to them. 4.5/5

I’m always looking for books like this as I work with you in foster care nearing the age to transition to adulthood.

This is a really good comprehensive guide! I appreciated that there’s a social skills chapter as it’s an aspect of life skills often overlooked.

This would be an excellent gift for a teen or young adult starting out on their own.

This is a great book for anyone about to be turning 13 or 18 years old. It has everything you need to know as you enter those stages in life. It has things like career choices, home chores, tax filing, how to respect others, and many more. I would recommend this book to anyone becoming a teen or adult. It would be very helpful to them. I would also buy this book when it officially comes out.

While it doesn't contain any problematic or innacurate content—though maybe an American reviewer could check the accuracy of its contents about taxes and part-time work—the Life Skills Book for Teens simply doesn't deliver on its promise of preparing its readers for "everything you need to know" about adulthood. A lot of very elementary skills took up the pages, such as how to wash the dishes or fold one's laundry. For teenagers in the age range the book targets (16+), this information simply isn't useful.

Even when the book attempts to tackle more relevant information—the last chapter pivots from car maintenance to living with roommates—it often falls flat. Most of these chapters read like half-baked listicles due to their general, one-paragraph "advice" and lack of actual insight. Once, the author suggested, in the context of registering for the Selective Service, the author simply tells the reader to go to the website. There's no explanation for what the Selective Service is (unfamiliar to me as a non-American reader) or anecdotal comparisons for what one might expect. Half of this advice could be tweets and it wouldn't make a difference.

Ultimately, I left this book disappointed, frustrated, and more than a little puzzled as to how it could be marketed for 16+ readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Callisto Teens for providing me with a digital ARC of this title.