Official Review: Seven Essential Things Needed for Relati...

[Shelle]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Seven Essential Things Needed for Relationships to Succeed" by Todd Corabi.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Seven Essential Things Needed for Relationships to Succeed by Todd Corabi is a non-fiction educational guide geared toward teenagers, parents, educators, and others who work with middle and high school students. The author's goal is to provide a framework of what healthy relationships look like and how to help teens best navigate the unique situations with their various relationships.

Author Todd Corabi has been a high school teacher for nearly 20 years and used his experiences with teens as the basis for this book and the high school class he teaches that covers the same material. He builds his thesis by drawing a basic simple house and shows how the house's foundation, walls, and roof are all like important parts of a healthy relationship. The first part of the book talks about our inherent need for relationships and the different types of relationships throughout or lives. The main part of the book talks about the Seven Things referred to in the title. Corabi describes the importance of trust and honesty, respect and communication, and friendship, loyalty, and love. The practical examples he gives make the material very applicable and I could easily see how my past healthy and unhealthy relationships did or did not meet the requirements of this framework.

I thought this material was interesting and useful. I could see teachers and parents finding the information in this book helpful and relevant to the teens they encounter every day. There were some really good chapters about love and obsession as well as love and sex that deal with these mature topics in a no-nonsense, direct way and I found that approach refreshing and honest. I also appreciated all the real-life examples the author gave from his decades of teaching.

I also really liked the author's conversational writing style and found his thought process easy to follow. However, the overuse of unnecessary quotations became annoyingly distracting and formatting and spacing irregularities made the book feel not as professional as it could have been otherwise. While I don’t doubt Corabi’s claims, I would have appreciated the author citing some published, peer-reviewed studies to back up his claims.

I rated this book 3 out of 4 stars. The material covered was interesting and practical, but the lack of polish in the editing left the book feeling not quite finished. I would happily recommend this book to my teacher friends as well as parents of teens and tweens. While the author specifies that this book was not created to meet common core curriculum standards, it can be adapted to meet those requirements rather easily and I think teachers would appreciate that. I could see this book serving as a catalyst for some heartfelt and in-depth conversations between parents and their teen children.

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Seven Essential Things Needed for Relationships to Succeed
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Like Shelle's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Rosemary Okoko]

Teenagers need guidance on relationships and i believe this book will he helpful to those who interact with teenagers facing relationship issues. Nice review.

[kandscreeley]

With the state of relationships in this world, this probably is a very needed book right now. Sounds like it has some good tips and advice in it. It's too bad about the lack of polish but that can surely be fixed. Thanks.

[bfergusonwpg]

While I can't see this being the type of material I would go out of my way for, this does sound like a worthy book in spite of its technical flaws. I agree with the commentator just prior to me that this could probably be easily remedied.

[kunlebass]

The book review on the title Seven essential things needed for relationships is highly recommended for parents and their teenage kids.Quite interesting and educative.

[Tanvir123]

Interesting for me

[MarisaRose]

I think this is a great topic to bring up at the YA level. Glad you found some merit in this one!

[derekkirima]

This book 7 things needed for relationship to succeed by Tedd Corabi is good for all involved with growing teenagers beginning sexual relationships but also proves to be interesting for teens themselves apart from some unproven claims by the author that as already cited, he could have solved by getting expert, proven ideas, I give the author thumbs up for his good and interesting work and urge others to read it.

[Promise ukanwa]

So interesting

[Naval Aulakh]

I liked the review. Relationships is one of the most discussed topic these days. Anyone who is suffering from bad relationships must read this book

[Kelebogile Mbangi]

I wish I had this book a few years back in highschool. I think I could still benefit from it now. Thank you for your clear, helpful review.

[Penny Lee]

The qualities Corabi describes, namely trust, honesty, respect, communication, friendship, loyalty, and love certainly seem foundational in any good relationship. Hopefully the editing can be a bit more polished so that the book can reach a wider audience. Thanks for the good review.

[bookiegalke]

While the targeted audience for this book are teenagers, parents and educators, it would seem to me that even people who don't fall into that category would benefit from the many insights brought out in this book. I look forward to reading it

[The Researcher]

Who does not need advice on relationships. I think everyone should read it. Thanks for the nice review.

[Onyinyechukwu]

Sounds like a credible review. Relationships are a lot different than one could imagine. I guess it shouldn't be left to the imagination but taught about by a reliable source. It might be worth while to read the book. Thanks.