Speak Up and Get Along!

Speak Up and Get Along: Learn the Mighty Might, Thought Chop, and More Tools to Make Friends, Stop Teasing, and Feel Good About Yourself. Scott Cooper. Free Spirit Publishing, c2005. 120 pages.

Summary:

“If you treat others and yourself with respect, people will usually treat you with respect, too. This book can help make that happen: it will teach you to speak up for yourself and others in a respectful way…so you can get along—with others and yourself” (Cooper, 2005, p.2).

Scott Coopers knows that people are social, and “that means that we spend most our time with other people” (Cooper, 2005, p.4) and need to know how to get along. His book Speak Up and Get Along provides tweens with the tools to do just that. Each of the book’s six chapters introduces a different set of tools and is named after a bird that is good at that set of tools. For example, the third chapter, titled “Ending Arguments and Fights: The Tools of the Dove,” says “for thousands of years, the dove has been a symbol of peace to people all over the world” (Cooper, 2005, p.40). One tool it advises readers use to avoid conflict is “the cool down.” When you need to Cool Down, remove yourself from the situation and “ride your bike or skateboard” (Cooper, 2005, p.52) or choose one of the other 20 twenty listed ways to cool down. The book also includes a “Note to Adults,” resources for kids, and resources for parents and teachers.

Review/personal thoughts:

Scott Cooper’s Speak Up and Get Along is a really great resource for tweens! Something that really struck me is the personal connection the author establishes with the subject in the book’s introduction. “Part of respecting others is not judging them before you know them” (Cooper, 2005, p.2), he says. “When I was younger, I had a prejudged idea about people who watched birds. I thought of them as, well…nerdy. I pictured bird watchers as people who wore high socks, funny-looking hats, and binoculars dangling from their necks” (Cooper, 2005, p.2). However, one day he discovered he liked the hobby after his brothers asked him to join them. Cooper even named each of the book’s six chapters after a different bird according to the tools it uses to get along with other birds and take care of itself.

The author also asked his readers to write to him and let him know how the tools outlined in the book helped them. He provided his email address and a mailing address where he can be reached. I think this is a really nice touch as it expresses how greatly Cooper cares about his readers and the subject itself. 

Reading level: ages 9-12