Customer Reviews

All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thus book bridges from science to practice, offering a new model for engaging many sectors of community-family, neighborhood, congregations,employers, schools-in creating settings and relationships to build developmental strengths. When one looks at youth through the lens of developmental assets, everything changes.

Implications for everything from public policy to neighborhood revitalization are discussed. This book would be a powerful textbook in all of those fields which train the next generation of community leaders.

Outstanding resource for anyone who works with youth (or anyone who has a heart for youth). I am the director of a large youth and community center in Los Angeles and this book has truly motivated me to work to build a stronger "community" with local schools, parents, neighborhood agencies that focus on supporting kids and their families.

This book is a must read!

This asset-building approach to youth development and community development is solidly based on extensive research and meta-research. Thousands of youth have been surveyed to yield the great information. Written for parents, community volunteers and professionals who work with children & youth, it describes 40 qualities (or assets) which help youth thrive. The more of the 40 assets a youth has the better he/she does. A university student body president I knew felt he had 39 of the 40 assets; since I knew him to be a fabulous kid, it validated the asset-building framework for me. I urge every parent to get and read this, apply what you learn to your kids, and then go out and make your community more youth friendly. I have 3 copies; two of which are "loaners".

If you are someone who is looking for information related to child and community development that is based on actual research, this is for you. It's based on more then someone's opinion or beliefs. The book is somewhat academic and may not be an easy read, but it is useful information. If you are a parent, youth educator, or community worker you need to know and understand the developmental assets.

I got through most of this book before giving up. My 30-second review: Having a Ph.D. might get you a book contract, but it sure doesn't make you any of the following: rigorous, searching, expert, or wise. There's no command of the youth development lit here; there's no comprehensive understanding of the lives of young people today; and there are few sentences and paragraphs that don't beg for good editing! What's here? Generalities and platitudes abundant. Don't waste your time as I did. There are many better books out there!

Benson's "All Kids are Our Kids" offers a sloppy, often hyperbolic, and superficial approach to the complex issue of how communities can support the healthy development of youth. The book--a product of The Search Institute's "developmental assets" franchise--is a pop-psych gumbo of child development knowledge. It's also badly edited. Readers would be advised to skip this "one smile at a time" treatise in favor of far more intelligent, perceptive, better grounded, and socially complex works, and there are many of them.