Erin Elisabeth Conley

Crap: How to deal with annoying teachers, bosses, backstabbers, and other stuff that stinks is a simplistic semi-self-help book aimed at teenagers who need assistance in coping with negative aspects of their lives. This short, easy-to-read guide offers teens methods on how to deal with the emotional weight of undesirable people and situations. It lists and briefly describes where four types of undesirable features come from, those being: from management, peers, yourself, and the universe. It also provides possible reasons for why people cause strife, how to avoid problems like these in the future, how to handle problems like these now, and how to dispose of them permanently. For the most part the book contains ‘common knowledge’ though might not seem so common to suffering teenagers. The layout of the paperback is very simplistic, with a table of contents and a definition of ‘crap’ at the beginning. Unfortunately, it does not have an index, though being only 96 pages long an index does seem unnecessary. It also does not have a bibliography or source notes of any kind, which would have been helpful in backing up quotes and facts, particularly where one ‘fact’ consisted of multiple percentages that added up to much more than one hundred.

This informational book has an obvious theme with its plain brown cover and internal text all in the same shade of brown. The title Crap is also a dead giveaway for the theme, which utilizes the less offensive teenage slang for excrement. Even the page numbers were enclosed in mini-piles of poo. Numerous puns, historical trivialities, and scientific facts about excrement were sprinkled throughout as well. There are also quotes from cartoon characters and real people on ‘crap’ and how to get rid of it. In addition there are also quotes giving general advice for handling issues and regarding related topics such as blame, learning, and laughter. The correlation between literal excrement and figurative ‘crap’ engages the audience, while providing positive messages and helpful solutions to typical teen problems. The novel also inspires thoughtfulness in the audience by portraying differing points of view, such as those expressed by parents. Overall, this is a humorous, albeit cheesy, paperback that is quick to the point with useful information.… (más)