Dear Mr. Jell,
I have to admit that when my dad first told me to read this book, I didn’t want to. It looked like something that would just bore me. Once I started reading, my mind was changed. By the end of the book, I was glad that I had read it.
I was hooked right from the introduction. You wrote like you were talking to a friend and understood that your reader would be able to get more out of your book if the writing was more casual. Most importantly, you told your life story. It eliminated all the doubt in those with a similar situation. Just because they have a poor background and maybe not the money to go to college, doesn’t mean they have no chance at success.
To start off the book you focused on getting your reader motivated with your reality check questions. You then went on to tell them that in order to achieve their goals they have to not only get good grades, but acquire many important skills as well. Most high school students think it is only about the grades. When you compared an A student to a C student in chapter 4, it really emphasized the importance of your “soft skills”. After that you gave many ways to enhance your “soft skills”. Then you told the reader that it was time for them to get focused. This is where I got worried. You said it was important that you know what fields you are interested in. I am one of those people who has no idea what they want to do with their life. Luckily, you told me how to find that out too. Then in chapter 7 I think you covered one of the most important topics: how to pay for college. If you can’t pay for it, then you can’t attend. If you can’t attend then you won’t have nearly as many opportunities. There are so many people who think college is out of the question because of the amount of money they would need to attend. You made it easy to plan out different ways to meet the costs. Then, once they get there they can apply everything they learned in your book.
These are just some of the important topics you covered in you book. But information was not all it had to offer. It was an easy read—as if I were having a conversation with you. I also thought that your chapter summaries were a great idea. In the future, when I call on this book for advice, I can skim through the chapter summaries to find the information I need. Lastly, it was extremely nice of you to invite the reader to email you for advice or to share a success story. You understand that in a book, advice must be general and might differ in a specific situation. If this happens, the reader can get the help they need.
Overall, I thought this book was very helpful. Although I might not get immediate use out of it because I am only a freshman in high school, I plan to keep it for future use. I am not sure what I want to do or what college I want to go to, but I do plan on attending a university. I know that when that time comes I will be able to count on advice from this book to lead me to success.

Sincerely,
Alicia Bartick