The Me I Want to Be Student Edition: Becoming God's Best Version of You

Excellent book for both Middle School and High School students. The original version is, of course, excellent as well. These student editions have more relatable (i.e. age-appropriate) illustrations, which is helpful. Ortberg is a great writer, pastor, and practical theologian.

John Ortberg challenges teens to become the person that God has made them to be, the youier you. He starts off with some general ideas and then gets into specifics of how to grow spiritually and figure out who God has made you to be.My husband and I read this so we could help lead a retreat for teen leaders that used this as the main topic. I'll be honest, I was not impressed by the first two chapters of this. They felt fluffy and like the author was just telling people to feel better about themselves. (I also felt like some of his illustrations did not actually illustrate his point well at all in those chapters.) Anyway, chapter 3 on got much better. He actually did get into some practical things to do to grow spiritually, and his illustrations got much better from then on out too. It took me quite a while to get through this because 1) I wasn't super motivated to read it after those first two chapters, and 2) it was a busy time with packing up from summer travels, flying home and orientation for the school year going on and such. It ended up being good and the teens seemed to get some good things out of it. I thought the best chapter was the one on worry. It had some very practical and poignant advice. There are quite a lot of books on Christian life out there for teens. I personally would recommend a couple others before this one, not that it was bad or anything it just doesn't stick with you as well as say some of Kyle Idleman's books do.

While I am not a young adult, I certainly enjoyed this book. We all face times of evaluating who we are and who we want to be. This book helps you focus on what makes you who you are, taking a hard look at how you spend your time, examining your unique experiences, evaluating your relationships, and your overall world. All of this helps you discover what the best version of you looks like. This is a great way to affirm and confirm your life direction, not just discover it.***Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): I received the aforementioned product from Zondervan to facilitate an honest review. All opinions are my own***

THE ME I WANT TO BE is a book for teens to learn to find themselves. There are some good things ln there, like learning styles and personality types, but a lot of it was technical sounding and maybe not meant for the normal person. I didn't get all the graphs and stuff.The first two chapters started slow and I didn't see the point of them. There was an interesting story about a four year old who was strong willed and a mental patient who led doctors in song, but that was about all I got out of them.There are a few bordered sections that are helpful and draw the reader in, and a couple quizzes (like one to see how connected you are) and it is very definitely biblically based, but overall, the tone is dry, educational, and probably geared to a totally different learning style than me. I found the book overwhelmingly dry and I don't know that I learned anything.I'd recommend thumbing through a copy or reading a sample chapter to see if it fits your learning style before purchasing, because some may find it very helpful.I was given a copy free. All opinions are my own.

Not read it yet but it looks good