Claudio Bota Bota itibaren 353 01 Velká Hleďsebe, Çek Cumhuriyeti itibaren 353 01 Velká Hleďsebe, Çek Cumhuriyeti

Branko Galonja Ms. Campanella English 3H- Period 2 3 April 2009 The Overachievers The awe-inspiring and beautifully written novel The Overachievers: The Secret Life of Driven Kids, written by Alexandra Robbins, is one that many high school teenagers can relate their life to. The reason I chose this book was because I was assigned to read it. Usually when I am assigned to read a book I hate it from the start, but to my amazement I could actually relate to this story. This novel is classified under fiction, and gives off an energy that is similar to that of a typical teenage drama. The High school life is one filled with many wonders such as Prom and boyfriends and girlfriends, but many also dread their lives in high school because the stress of maintaining grades and having an outside life is to overwhelming for them to handle. This is exactly what the novel The Overachievers is about, a tale of nine students who go through the painful journey of high school. “AP” Frank, Audrey, C.J, Julie, Sam, Taylor, Pete, the “Stealth”, and Ryland all attend or used to attend Walt Whitman High School in Maryland. Frank is the workhorse of the group; always doing everything he can to finish his work, or to improve his studies. Audrey is another leader of the group and many would consider her a perfectionist. She has to have everything the way she wants it, and everything has to be flawless. But high school is challenging even for these two, because it provides the obstacles that stand in the way of their dreams. The conflicts that are found throughout the novel consist of man vs. man and man vs. self. The students are forced to overcome all the obstacles of the extreme curriculum and maintain the perfect GPA that will send them off to their dream colleges. The kids put an amazing amount of pressure on themselves by taking advanced placement classes and overwhelming themselves with a devastating amount of work. Not only do they pressure themselves to stay elite in academics, but the addition of being pushed by their parents drives them into a state of superior stress. One example of this conflict is the life of AP Frank, a successful student who has already finished high school, still bears the pressure of his mom. Another major conflict that is seen is man vs. society. The acceptance rate for colleges is becoming much more challenging, accepting a much smaller amount of students than the previous years. Colleges can only accept so many students, and the exponential growth of graduating seniors is too much for the colleges to handle. The competition for these few spots becomes so fierce that kids would do anything to get that final spot. They fight off each other to still have that small sliver of hope of attending their dream colleges. This is the new generation, a group of young people who are eaten alive by the stress of attaining the perfect life. But it has a moral behind this madness, a theme that teaches the student to ease up on the school work and enjoy life while they can. I was amazed that this book was as good as it was. When I first read the title, I thought that it would be another boring story of a bunch of nerds trying to go to a superior college. When I read the first couple of pages I was immediately hooked by the simplistic writing style of the author. It made it truly easy to read and was easy for me to draw a picture in my head. It also provided a good amount of statistical information with the requirements for colleges and the curriculum that the high school offers. Overall I had a fantastic time reading this book and recommend it to anyone who is experiencing the high school life right now. It has taught me to enjoy the high school life because you are only in high school once. Don’t let school work take over your life, enjoy high school while you can, because you only have one chance to be a teenager.