<h3>This Book Will Change Your Life</h3>

Benrik. (2003). This Book Will Change Your Life. NY: Plume. ISBN: 0452284899.

Plot Summary: Part instruction manual, part therapy, part pseudo religious cult, part sheer anarchy, This Book Will Change Your Life, is a silly and genuine fun book that promises to change your life. The book contains activities for each of the 365 days in the year. These activities are meant to bring fresh air into your ho-hum days and make you try something you otherwise wouldn’t do. For example, on one day, it instructs readers to propose to a complete stranger or give some money to an unlikely person. On day 57, it advises you to try food that scares you. On day 16, it recommends discreetly giving the finger to everyone you meet. Other days encourage self-examination, decorating bananas and other fruit or writing to dictators. With its witty visuals, crazy drawings and occasionally insightful exercises, this book offers creative thinking and offbeat humor.

Critical Evaluation: This is a really an unusual and hilarious book that will either truly change your life or get you put in jail for being an annoying nuisance to everyone (perhaps a condition already likely with teenagers :)). Some of these activities are acts of goodwill, lessons to learn about yourself or just silly things that teens (and adults) would be willing do. It’s somewhat of a parody of self-help books, kind of a guidebook for humorously changing the world and also a manifesto for wreaking havoc with people’s expectations. I think teens will really laugh over this book and it would make a great gift for any disdainful, daring or precocious young adult looking for a book that really speaks to them.

Reader’s Annotation:
Is the year ahead looking much the same as the last? Another 365-day grind of boredom, bad haircuts, and endless homework? If so, try this book. It will change your life.

Information About the Author:
Benrik is a combination of Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag. Ben Carey was born in New Zealand and grew up in France. Henrik Delehag is Swedish, and commutes to London from Stockholm. Benrik Limited is their “mutant lovechild” company, and is involved in a range of global activities, from books to “genetic modification." And that’s all I could find out about these mysterious mischief-makers.

Genre:
Teen Issues: Activism
Contemporary Life: Humor
Alternative Formats: Mixed Formats

Curriculum Ties: Art class, Social Studies class, Humanities class, Book clubs, Social clubs, Recommendations for Young Adult Reluctant Readers

Booktalking Ideas:
1.) Does this book inspire you to do any of their exercises?
2.) Why do they provide 365 days of activities?
3.) Favorite Day Lessons
4.) The use of art and image in this book
5.) What change do you thing this book would make to your life?

Reading Level/Interest Age: Ages 15-25

Challenge Issues/Defenses:

Potential Challenges:
• Depictions of Violence
• References to Sexual Behavior
• Adult Language
• Content includes references to drinking and smoking

Defense Strategy:
• Provide our Collection Development Policy (which includes Young Adult scope): http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/library/collection.asp

• Provide book reviews by actual readers on a publicly accessible website:
http://books.google.com/books?id=XwYnqgwb0bMC&sitesec=reviews&source=gbs_navlinks_s
http://www.amazon.com/This-Book-Will-Change-Your/product-reviews/0452284899/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Why This Book Was Included: After reading so many novels this term, I just needed to read something completely zany, different and non-demanding. This one was it! It was funny enough for me to photocopy select pages and send it along in greeting cards to teen cousins, senior citizen uncles, clueless parents and anyone else I thought who would enjoy having a quick laugh in life. It's a book that is more targeted to college students, but it contains some relatively juvenile pranks and ideas that would definitely appeal to teens.