Lots -- and lots -- of books cross my desk. But this one really caught my eye:

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Middle School.

Bingo! My daughter Erika is starting sixth grade. That's a big enough deal. But she's also going to a school with absolutely nobody she knows. (Except her dad, who teaches there.)

Sixth grade. Big school. No friends. Ugh.

As I flip through this handy guide, I see all kinds of useful advice: "How to Play It Cool When You Don't Know the Answer." "How to Survive a Massive Mess-Up." "How to Survive Mean Girls." "How to Survive a Crush Without Getting Crushed."

I really wish I had had this book back when I was that age. Maybe I would have known how to actually, you know, talk to boys. Maybe I could have avoided that haircut (there's a chapter in the book). Maybe...sigh. It's too painful to even think about middle school.

So I give the book to Erika with instructions to mark up the parts that are particularly handy. She flips through it. Gives it a good look. And yawns.

Anything helpful? "No," she says. "It's all so obvious."

Uh-oh. The girl must be deluded. Have I sheltered her? Have I not given her the skills she needs to find her way through the trecherous hallways of .... middle school?

Or maybe, just maybe, she's .... confident. She's always had a pretty thick skin -- a byproduct of having an older brother.

But I'm going to keep the book handy in case she ever has a crisis of confidence. Or in case, you know, she needs my advice.

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