The Best Way to Get Your Way doesn't sound like a book you want to give your children, right? Wrong! It is a very informative book about the art of debating, teaching children or anyone: how debate competitions work, how lawyers often present court cases, how presidential debates are handled, and more. It is not a boring non-fiction, educational book. The aspects of debate, including the topic or resolution, opening statement, rebuttal, and closing arguments, are presented in a fun format, using issues close to a pre-teen or teenager's heart - chores, screen time, eating vegetables, bedtime, and homework. The simulated debates are entertaining and are presented by fabricated young people in the manner their counterparts might debate the subjects. The book does not just teach about debating techniques. The debates themselves are informational, and the book discusses compromise, fallacies, and biases, among other things. Chanelle Nibbelink has added quirky, colorful illustrations to the text. This book by Tanya Lloyd Kyi is a spectacular tool for teaching that arguing does not have to mean nagging or whining. Arguments may be presented in a less stressful form. After reading this, your child might decide to join their school's debate team!
Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the ARC of this book.

The Best Way to Get Your Way is a book that teaches the basics of debate to kids. In each chapter two characters present opposing arguments for a kid-friendly debate topic. The text also includes explanations of debate tactics alongside the fiction arguments. A pretty good primer for effective debate and how persuasive argument works for beginners.

This is a fun book for kids -- and a great way for parents and caregivers to give argumentative kids some actual debate skills! Of course, if you're going to hand this off to your kid you'll need to be prepared to debate, so this is ideal for families where negotiation is acceptable and kids' opinions can actually make a difference.

The way it's set out with different characters and their arguments, and researched-backed information, will be interesting to any child who wants to learn debate skills, whether for academics or to attempt some screen time/bed time/veggie-eating convincing at home.

This book would be a very good book for a middle grade school library or a resource in a school debating club. It provides an excellent structure and roadmap for critiquing arguments and presenting one’s views in a debate.

While the authors did attempt to make this topic livelier by providing characters with opinions, I’m not sure that they were all differentiated as characters. The words that came out of their mouths seemed more like what some parents might say or think their kids might say. And there was a bit of a bias in content here, gaining power over your parents in what you can do. Although this seemed balanced by content that was more considerate to others, as opposed to relatively selfish, the tone and title emphasis "Best Way to Get Your Way" might be objected to by some individuals.

Overall, the book is very attractive, nicely structured, provides good references for future reading and is very usable, both by prospective debaters and people coaching them. Inclusions are: a handy section on judging criteria and a long list of useful topics. For students wishing to refer back to points made in the book’s debates, an index is provided.

I just had a student ask me for a book like this. Looking forward to adding this to our school.collection.

I’m sorry, i might be wrong but i see only good and bad side in those arguments, but i felt like the book made it look like all norm and you have the choice and no consequences are gonna follow that decision! And the ideas were both sides were actually fine were presented in a kinda misleading and off-putting way. Didn’t enjoy, and don’t think I would recommend it to any child. The idea was great, it was the execution that failed.

Fantastic way to bring life to debates. There is research, both sides of the situation presented, etc. I thought this book was charming and realistic for middle schoolers. The points made are definitely what students struggle with, but it gives them ways to talk about their struggles or wants in a healthy manner. This book meets GA's ELA standards for Research and Debate. It will be a great tool for my school.

The thing describes the book is pretty. The basic thing that kids need to learn about are written beautifully and assisted with good pictures also make it comfortable to read.

I’ll highly recommend this to my teacher friends when it releases in May. This book is excellent because it takes relevant topics for middle schoolers and debates both sides, complete with counter arguments and closing statements. The format is easy to follow. Although designed to teach the art of debate, I plan to use it to teach persuasive writing. It teaches content-specific vocabulary needed to write a good argument. This will be a great teaching tool.

As a parent there's an evil side of me that isn't sure I want my kids having this much knowledge and power...just kidding!

This is a great introduction to critical thinking and supporting their ideas with actual research.

I could see this also being a great conversation starter about the topics used for example debates in the book (screen time, cleanliness, eating veggies, etc).

I love anything that gets my kid really thinking about why they believe a certain thing.

Thank you, Kids Can Press, for the advance reading copy.

I cannot believe how amazing this compilation is! It’s colourful and packed with amazing information ranging from the human body to random surprising facts.

This information is mostly aimed at building skills for the kids in a manner they can understand. There are some myths to bust and this book will tell exactly what’s wrong with us adults telling kids not to do something without actually telling them why they should not do it.

Such a wonderful surprise. I would like to add that this book will help teachers and parents a lot too in explaining things to kids.