Editorial Content for How to Be Brave

HOW TO BE BRAVE by E. Katherine Kottaras is a great book with many elements in it that get the reader hooked. The story is about a girl named Georgia Askeridis. Trying to get through her mother’s death, Georgia begins her senior year in high school. High school is already a pain, but when you are slightly overweight, it is even worse. All of these difficulties inspire Georgia and her friend Liss to make a list, and not just any list --- a list of everything Georgia has always wanted to do but has never had the courage to try. Georgia’s mother wanted her to be braver, and now it’s up to Georgia to follow the list and make that happen.

Georgia learns a lot as she goes through the items on her list; she’s ecstatic when she gets up the courage to talk to her long-term crush, and she realizes that not everything can go her your way. She learns that to build better relationships, you might have to let an old one fall, and that sometimes, what you thought wouldn’t hurt you hurts you the most. Lastly, she discovers she can get through it all; you just have to be brave enough to try.

Kottaras’ writing kept me interested the whole time, and the plot twists made me want to laugh and cry simultaneously.

 I thoroughly enjoyed HOW TO BE BRAVE, and my teenage self would definitely have been able to relate to it.  While the book certainly teaches you lessons, it’s not your typical cheesy story with a moral. Kottaras’ writing kept me interested the whole time, and the plot twists made me want to laugh and cry simultaneously. One thing I really like about HOW TO BE BRAVE is that it never gets dry; I didn’t feel the need to put down the book and read it later, something that doesn’t happen quite as often as I wish it would.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to other young adults, especially if they are someone that liked Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell or Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.