I’m always unsure when reading a book explaining how to write or be publish by a writer you doesn’t look very famous. I’m fine with Stephen King telling me how to write, he obviously knows what he is talking about, but that’s not the case for everyone. This book surprises me in a good way. It present the basic of the YA mechanics and how to observe it, learn it and use it, and it does it very well. Some of those elements can even be use in others genre and still be relevant. My only problem with it is that when you start to approach writing like it is a recipes, it can become very unoriginal and look very fake. So yeah the basic and the canvas of it all can help new or wannabe writers but they have to keep in mind that using it in a very mechanical way, won’t work. Writing is creative, it’s art, and when using mechanical skill, you still need to put some of you, some style and some sensitivity to it if you want it too become something more than a generic story about generic characters. (Says the guy who never written anything good... but sure has read a lot!)