** spoiler alert ** Reading Level: Age 13 and up. As much as I like the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens book, this title is my favorite self-help/philosophy for teens that I've read. It is not an easy feat to present good advice to teens in a manner that is altogether useful, engaging and funny, yet Sean Covey accomplishes that and more with this book. First, it is chock-full of pictures, cartoons, interactive games, diagrams, text boxes and questionnaires, and they are all in color!

Covey is also the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and includes a chapter near the front which is called “The 7 Habits Crash Course,” designed to quickly introduce readers to Covey’s philosophy from his previous book. After that chapter, the book is divided into six sections, corresponding to Covey’s 6 Important Decisions: School, Friends, Parents, Dating and Sex, Addictions and Self-Worth. This makes the chapters somewhat long, though they are laid-out so well, with multiple headers and the like, that a reader will not have difficulty stopping midway through if necessary.

Each chapter presents advice with various lists, suggestions or steps. For example, the School chapter goes over four “Challenges” teens face, then the ‘7 Secrets To Getting Good Grades,” then a list of reasons why a teen should attend college. Later in the chapter, readers will discover a four-page game called “The Voice Finder,” designed to help teens figure out what they want to do with their future. At the end of every chapter Covey includes ten “Baby Steps,” which are short questions or activities to get teens to absorb and process what they just read, and help them figure out what to do next. I wish I could have found more books that combined such an attractive and appealing style with wonderful, straight-forward writing. Covey never talks down to his readers, and doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to more difficult subjects like drug or porn addictions.

The larger sections of this book can be read in any order, though I would recommend starting at the beginning and going all the way through. The end contains two pages of thank-yous, extra information (usually web sites) for all of the 6 decisions, a bibliography, an index, a description of Covey’s business, Franklin Covey, and the final page lists the movies that Covey says are “must-see” and are greatly enjoyed by his family. I will absolutely be purchasing this book for my own sons when they are older, and I will encourage them, as Covey has done, to write notes in the margins and to personalize the book.