Mastering The Art Of Success

(^) Mastering the Art of Success
(^)
WRIGHT
I think one of the powerful components of that book series is that
you can read a positive story in just a few minutes and come back and
revisit it. I kn ow my daughter has three of the books and she just reads
th em interchangeably. Sometimes I go in h er bedroom and she’ll be
crying and r eading one of them. Other times she’ll be laughing, so they
really are “chicken soup for the soul,” aren’t they?
CANFIELD
They really are. In fact we have four books in the Teenage Soul
seri es now and a new one coming out at the end of this year. I have
a son who’s eleven and he has a twelve-year-old fr iend who’s a girl. We
have a new book called Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and the
Tough Stuff. It’s all about dealing with parents’ divorces, teachers
who don’t understand you, boyfriends who drink and drive, and other
issues pertinent to that age group.
I asked my son’s friend, “Why do you like this book?” (It’s our
most popular book am ong teens right now.) She said, “You know,
whenever I’m f eeling down I read it and it makes me cry and I feel
better. Some of the stories make me laugh and some of the stories make
me feel more responsible for my lif e. But basically I just f eel like I’m not
alone.”
One of the people I work with recently said th at the books are like a
support group between the covers of a book—you can read about other
peoples’ experiences and realize you’re not the only one going thro ugh
something.
WRIGHT
Jack, we’re trying to encourage people in our audience to be better,
to live better, and be more fulfilled by reading about the experiences of
our writers. Is there anyone or anything in your life that h as made a
di fference for you and helped you to become a better person?
CANFIELD
Yes, and we could do ten books just on that. I’m i nfluenced by
people all the time. If I were to go way back I’d have to say one of the
key influences in my life was Jesse Jackson when he was still a minister
in Chicago. I was teaching in an all black high school there and I went to