The Overachievers: What We Don't See

They are in every high school in the United States.

They are the kids who normal students envy.

They are the ones who can juggle three after school activities and still manage to receive distinguished honor roll every year.

Any sane person would ask themselves, "How do they do that? I can barely handle my Chemistry class, let alone anything that is AP."

But what we don't see is the lives behind these students. What we don't see is what drives them to be who they are. We don't know if they are perfectionists at heart, we don't know if they have parents who frown upon an A-, we don't know them for who they truly are behind their perfect, if slightly hectic, appearance.

This book is an attempt to portray the lives of these students, and how they struggle to find themselves in the midst of high school life.

On another level, this book addresses the education system of the United States, and how high school has changed over the years. In the 90's and earlier 2000's, high school was simply about narrowing down your choices so that if you go to college, you would know what you would want to do.

Now, high school is nothing more than a stress inciter, filled with tests and overly-rigorous standards that grossly over-prepare students for college.

Some might argue that this is a step forward, but when students become more and more driven to become perfectionists, the standard that is education will fall hard. People in and of themselves can only be so perfect. Nobody in his or her own right is truly perfect.

And yet, some people, parents especially, can't see that. One of the characters, nicknamed "AP Frank", has a mom who has pretty much laid out his entire life plan for him. We've seen the stereotype before, typical "Tiger Mom" kind of stuff. But when you see the harsh reality, it really makes you feel for the guy, and how he struggles to decide what he wants to do with his own life.

All in all, a very interesting book to read, a book that will leave you re-thinking your opinions about those people that have five or six AP classes and have to carry around a backpack the size of a small boulder.