By TJJD Communications —
The youth of Tamayo House are starting a new book this New Year for their book club.
They met at the beginning of the month to finalize their selection for “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul” (25th Anniversary Edition.)
The book’s subtitle is “101 Lessons on Life, Love and Learning” and includes stories from teens about their school year relationships, heartbreaks and experiences with friends.
The youth discuss their perspectives on what they’ve read and share their thoughts, emotions, and values, which is a life skill beneficial for relationship building.
The benefit of reading this book was that students could read different stories regardless of where they left off at the previous meeting. Youth could attend when they could and it did not matter whether they attended the last meeting or not, said book club organizer JCO Delia Garcia, noting that some youths are only at the house for 45 days.
“Book club has been a highlight of my first year with TJJD at Tamayo,” Garcia said. “It is rewarding to see young minds reading, comprehending, and relating to the authors of the stories in ‘Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.’”
The students at Tamayo are often able to connect the stories they read and discuss to specific Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills such as identifying emotions, building positive relationships, identifying and managing triggers and understanding each other, she said.
When asked about what they gained from “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul,” replies included: positivity, inspiration, stories about “what goes around comes around.” The experience leads youth to engage with their inner selves, she said.
The next book on the list for the club at Tamayo is “Letters to the Sons of Society,” by Shaka Senghor. Senghor’s book explores his life as a father while he was incarcerated for second-degree murder, and the healing and redemption he felt after having a second child after his release from prison.
Garcia said the students were provided with a sneak peek of the new book and it sounds like they already have input, questions, and left their last meeting with curious minds.