13 IS THE NEW 18(ISBN=) 英文原版

　　“I wonder sometimes if there’s something to the old
superstition about the number thirteen. Maybe that superstition was
originally created by the mothers in some tribe who noticed that in
their children’s thirteenth year, they suddenly became possessed by
evil spirits. Because it did seem that whenever Taz was around,
things spilled and shattered, calm turned into chaos, and tempers
were lost.”
　　So laments the mother of one thirteen-year-old boy, Taz, a teen
who, overnight it seemed, went from a small, sweet, loving boy to a
hulking, potty-mouthed, Facebook/MySpace–addicted C student who
didn’t even bother to hide his scorn for being anywhere in the
proximity of his parents.
　　As this startling transformation floors journalist Beth Harpaz
and her husband, Elon, Harpaz tries to make sense of a bizarre
teenage wilderness of $100 sneakers, clouds of Axe body spray (to
hide the scent of pot?!), and cell phone bills so big they require
nine-by-twelve envelopes. In the process, she begins chronicling
her son’s hilarious, sometimes harrowing, indiscretions, blaming
herself (“I am a terrible mother” becomes her steadfast refrain),
Googling unfamiliar teenage slang, reading every parenting book she
can get her hands on, and querying friends who also have
teens.
　　From a derailed family vacation where Taz is more interested in
trying to get a cell phone connection than looking at the world’s
largest trees (boring!), to a prom where Taz is caught with liquor,
to a trip to Australia sans parents in which Taz actually doesn’t
get into any trouble and manages to do his own laundry, the events
that mark Taz’s newfound and troublesome independence are told with
a wry and poignant voice by a woman who’s both wistful for the past
and trying her hardest to understand her son’s head-scratching new
behavior. In her quest to infiltrate his world by spying on his
MySpace page (where he claims he’s twenty-two), Harpaz expands her
online monitoring and soon becomes a Facebook addict. She also
reflects on her own youth and entry into middle age, and in the
process achieves hard-won wisdom.
　　A book for any parent of teens—be they girls or boys—13 Is the
New 18 is a delightfully comical foray into today’s increasingly
widening generation gap and one mom’s attempt to figure it all out
with little guidance and a whole lot of misplaced guilt.
　　From the Hardcover edition.