“You may not realize it, but lenders don’t just hand out money, it always comes at a price.” Should a guide to credit cards and loans be any less direct? This book, which is chock-full of practical advice around how to pay bills on time, shop using discounts, and cut back on spending to meet one’s budget, is a helpful toolbox for fledgling young adult consumers. Sanderson acknowledges credit card rewards and perks but offers more frequent warnings about the consequences of credit misuse. Following the primer on credit cards is a section about all kinds of loans, including installment, personal, auto, student, and mortgage. The book covers snowball and avalanche methods of paying off debt along with debt consolidation. Photos, graphics, and text boxes appear throughout, breaking up the chunks of text into digestible nuggets. Recap pages helpfully remind readers of the main ideas they’ve encountered in each section, providing a handy lifeline for readers who may blanch at financial concepts, vocabulary, and equations for figuring out interest. A warning about raising one’s credit limit raises a minor contradiction over advice about credit utilization ratios, but otherwise this is a sound manual for getting one’s bearings about debt.

Promising to “take the mystery out of money and the fear away from finances,” Sanderson begins with a broad overview of job sectors that are open to teens, including retail, food service, babysitting, tutoring, lawn care, lifeguarding, and reselling items online. She then goes on to detail common payroll deductions, which leads into a discussion of taxes and retirement investments. All this information is presented in easily digestible blocks of narrative interspersed with stock photos of a racially diverse cast of smiling young workers, with summaries at each short chapter’s end. As a formula, the approach seems intended not to offer anything like a comprehensive set of options and expenses but to ease readers into thinking about how they’re going to make money as they move into adulthood and smart things to do with their earnings, while providing some specialized vocabulary (Form 1099, capital gains tax) that may prove helpful. The author closes by urging her audience to take a long view in planning for the future, to be careful with debts and credit cards, and to understand that, financially speaking, life “is full of surprises.”

Sanderson’s initial presentation of her subject is positive. She differentiates among types of social media, observing that online platforms have “opened up new career opportunities,” “enabled people to connect,” and allowed “people to leave reviews of products or companies.” China has its “own versions” of social media (there’s no mention of censorship). The statement that algorithms are a “little like librarians” is simplistic and misleading. Sanderson warns readers about some drawbacks, including peer pressure, deteriorating real-world social skills, cyberbullying, deepfakes, scams, and identity theft. The final section describes specific ways to use social media safely and what to do if you’re a victim. The last spread outlines the principles of good digital citizenship. Despite some cautions, the book dances around serious issues like echo chambers, manipulation of the electorate, and radicalization through hate speech. Readers also aren’t warned strongly enough about fake reviews or the improbability of influencing as a career, nor are they reminded that they are the product. The focus is on individual users’ responsibility, with little attention to industry or government regulation. The writing is accessible; sidebars highlight key pieces of information, and chapter summaries provide easy takeaways. Portions of this book are repeated, sometimes verbatim, in Sanderson’s Dealing With Cyberbullying (2026).

What is a refugee? While the simple answer—“a person fleeing their country to find safety”—is true, it only scratches the surface. This volume adds clear historical context. In the first three chapters, readers glean facts about refugees in the U.S. and examine global causes and responses and the social impact of displacement. The book offers reasons why people are forced to flee and how the world is responding to this ongoing humanitarian challenge, including the United Nations’ role in assisting refugees. The final three chapters turn toward solutions, highlighting caring for refugees, community integration, and long-term strategies for change. A standout feature of this book are the six sections that pose a central question—such as “Does the world community fully support refugees?”—which is followed by opposing perspectives (for example, “wealthier countries are playing their part” vs. “wealthy countries are not taking enough responsibility”). Readers are then invited to form their own opinions through critical reflection. The book concludes by questioning how it might feel to become a refugee and suggests we, as citizens, can do our part to address this crisis. The color photographs throughout depicting the realities of displacement are powerful without resorting to shock value, helping readers engage with empathy and awareness.