Customer Reviews
Author RETURNABLE GIRL 
2006-10-31
As a therapist who works primarily with teen girls, I applaud any author who writes on this topic, to give insight and help to many girls who are struggling with these issues. It's the reason I wrote my young adult novel, RETURNABLE GIRL, about a teen in foster care and her journey to adoption, amidst the bullying of middle school. [...]
A load of crock. 
2005-03-15
This book takes heartfelt letters written by girls trusting their most private experiences to a complete stranger (the author) -- and dissects them like a dead frog, telling the girls what they did "wrong" and how they "should" be acting, feeling, behaving if they want to a get a good grade, because this book GRADES every girl in their "First Person" segments.
The book's so-called solutions to complex friendship problems are condescending, written in wittle gurl speak, as if all of the challenges that a teenager faces can be cured by reading one saccharine-sweet paragraph.
This is a great book to give a teenager if you want her to come out acting like a little eye-batting robot who likes to give her friends lectures or follow lemmings over a cliff. Otherwise, I'd recommend books that don't gloss over problems or treat teen's issues like a pre-packaged slab of meat. I just read "Odd Girl Speaks Out" which quotes girls' full experiences without giving too much of a dumbed down response.
It too, however, may not have the answers to life's toughest questions -- but few (if any) books do. For the hardest or most dangerous issues, the best thing you can do is turn to a live person -- and keep turning until you find someone who actually listens to you.
GOOD BOOK! 2005-03-11
well, i bought this book cos i needed to know a little bit more about teenage behaviors and alittle of their psychology and stuff.
well this is a book well written for girls between 12 and 15 it lets u know why girls behave one way and some others differently, it also says some good ways to deal with them or avoid them etc.
it talks about, the bully, the drama queen etc etc. so its a nice book, i rate it with 4 because is not like a book to read is more like a manual.
but anyways it helps
Amazing!! 
2005-01-17
This book was awesome!! It put everything that happens at school into perspective for other people. I even did a book report for English on this book. So I decided to include part of it in this review, on this book in which I highly recommend:
One of her most inspiring books is Mean Chicks, Cliques, and Dirty Tricks. In this book, Dr. Erika explains how cruel young women are to each other. Her audience is mainly geared for middle or high school girls. She describes the stereotypes of most "mean chicks" of every school and ways to handle their behavior. She also uses several forms of sarcasm such as when she is mentioning how to deal with a "teaser." After someone has been teasing you, Dr. Erika's advises you to "record on paper what's being said, word for word, and by whom, when, and where. When someone asks `What're you doing?' you reply, `I'm documenting what's going on. Just in case this ends up in court. My dad says, `You always have to have the facts first.'" Her sense of humor continues as she writes about stereotyping people in which "Labels are for soup cans and sunscreens, not for people." Dr. Erika also includes references from other fields such as science. She labels different cliques as "alpha," "beta," and "gamma." Her friendly tone creates a more personal relationship between the reader and the author. The novel is full of motivating quotes and stories made by young girls who are spreading kindness to our society. Dr. Erika also includes fun filled quizzes so readers can find where they stand with the "mean chicks" and how to make situations better.
A Must-Read for Tweens/Teens and Their Parents 2004-05-25
"Please don't let anyone get in your way!" So starts Erika V. Shearin Karres' book MEAN CHICKS, CLIQUES, AND DIRTY TRICKS. This is some of the best advice you will find, but doesn't even compare to the rest of the advice that Ms. Karres gives throughout this book.
Part of being a girl is getting used to the "in" crowd, snobs, bullies, teasing, cliques, gossip, backstabbing, and more, whether during school hours, or on your own time. It is the one thing that makes being a female extremely tough, and easily compares girls to wild animals fighting over the tiniest thing.
Split up into 10 Chapters, MEAN CHICKS breaks female predators down into various groups, and writes about each separately. Chapters on The Bully, The Snob, The Gossip, The Traitor, The Teaser, and so on, feature quotes from young girls who have been bullied in the past (this feature alone will have tweens and teens interested in this book, as they feel as if they are being spoken to by their peers, as opposed to a parent/teacher/guardian), stories about girls who have overcome bullies, quizzes, resources, and an all around survival guide to help tweens, teens, and their parents deal with the problem civilly.
As someone who has been bullied non-stop in the past, I found this book to be extremely empowering, yet uplifting at the same time. I even starting crying a few times when reading the true stories from girls who have been bullied, as I could relate to them so well. Ms. Karres' breakdown of each type of girl is entirely accurate, and will have readers nodding their head in agreement with her comments about The Bully, Traitor, and so on. Parents with a tween/teen girl who is being bullied should definitely purchase this book, as it will be a helpful guide for both YOU and your child. Don't miss MEAN CHICKS, as it is a necessity.
Erika Sorocco
Good for opening a conversation, some good advice, but... barely deeper than a "very special episode" of your favorite sitcom 
2008-06-24
I have a daughter on the cusp of middle school, when the girls are just starting to get into the familiar patterns of female-to-female relational aggression so common at that stage. I ordered this book figuring perhaps it would be a good resource for her for dealing with some of these issues. I have read several books for adults that deal with these issues ("Reviving Ophelia," "Odd Girl Out," "Queen Bees and Wannabes" and such), but they tend to lack practical advice for the girls in the midst of these things.
This book is geared, instead, toward the girl facing this world on a daily basis. Overall, I think it's a decent resource, with a description of the behaviors a girl is likely to encounter, advice for how to deal with them, quizzes, examples of how other girl dealt with things...
There were, though, some things that keep me from giving this book a better rating. I think the suggestions were pretty simplistic, and while not as bad as simply saying "ignore them and eventually they'll leave them alone," they didn't really go into the REAL consequences of taking some of the recommended stands from the book. The author makes it sound as if once a girl rattles off a speech from the book, the "mean chicks" will leave her alone... which isn't quite the reality most of us have encountered. I'm not saying any of it is bad advice, I just think it paints a rosy picture of how quickly and easily these things work.
Another thing that bothered me was how much time was spent on excusing the offending girls' behaviors. The gossip should be embraced for her exceptional story telling skills, the bully should be pitied because she's probably being bullied at home, and so on. These may be true in some cases, but it's such a simple after school special way of looking at the world - get to the root of this other girl's issue and she'll suddenly be miss congeniality. Everything seems neatly wrapped up in a bow far too frequently in the book.
(The other annoyance was the pop culture references and attempts at slang which rapidly date an otherwise still contemporary book. It's hard enough for adult editors at magazines to keep up with this without sounding ridiculous to teens and adults... the shelf life of a book makes it all the more pronounced.)
All in all, I would recommend this as a conversation starter and to give some guidance to a girl who occasionally encounters rough behavior, but if you have - or are - a child who is truly bullied on a day-to-day basis, don't expect a life changing experience.
Erika tells it all n spiced it with her sense of humor!!! 2008-06-02
"It couldn't be better written than this!!! A great book for teens, and a Plus for parents to get to understand their girls what they go through in their academic life; although we all go through bullying; however, time changes and new "Tricks" are often created. That's Erika I know of, happy! happy! happy! and trying to share her laughter, love and self confidence to all..I like the qoutations at the beginning of every chapter, it gives the "bullied" or "victim" a sense of courage in handling the "Mean Chicks""
Erika summarizes her "Power of Several" by recommending to the girls more books, magazines, and internet resources to help them get "through the day with Smarts and Style"..Well done, Erika!!!
very useful 2008-02-19
This book has the ability to connect with the girls experiencing the negative clique effects, not just her parents. I recommend it highly
Mean chicks, cliques, and dirty tricks 2007-01-11
Wonderful help for a 13 year old daughter. She read it with great interest and I feel it helped her understand some of the problems she is experiencing as a 13 year old
A Must for Girls! 2006-11-10
This book is a must for all young girls. This book is "real" and is a great foundation for developing character for young girls who must deal with the rough tough meaness of the female world. It validates the sad reality and garbage stuff that's really going on among young girls.
