No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way

Helping kids understand the philosophy of beating yourself up and holding yourself back by making up reasons why you can't do something. Give your child a way to have confidence and avoid a lazy irresponsible mentality. Buy it, no excuses, it's worth the cost and effort.

I read wayne dyers excuses begone and then the power of intention which changed my life, i have a neice who is almost 12, i knew she needed this book, i bought the child version and got it and looked at it and it is like for a 5 year old! I was hoping for more from this book, i truly was hoping for a bigger book with more helpful information to help my neice. She is going through some tough times and this was not something that would help her, she thought i thought she was 5 years old and was offended. I feel bad now. :(

The core of this insidious little book is a positive message, cruelly expressed: pursue your dreams, and don't let naysayers and defeatists stand in your way. That is quite like the theme of "The Little Engine that Could," but whereas the naysayers to the engine who said "I think I can" were other engines of no emotional significance to the steam-driven heroine or the children hearing the tale, in "No Excuses," the enemy lies within.

The protagonist is a child who, although raised on a farm, wants one day to become a marine biologist and work with sea turtles. That means a college education, but at every turn, someone of importance, from teacher to Mom to Grandpa, says that the dream cannot or should not happen. The only person encouraging the ambition is a young, female marine biologist, Dr. Tortuga, who writes off all contrary admonitions as mere "excuses." Our little hero is therefore left with the sad choice of whether or not to pursue a dream in the face of loving and well-intentioned opposition, turning a career quest into an act of rebellion and placing an affirmative emotional experience (reaching your goal) at odds with loyalty to those held most dear. What is most disquieting is that the authors appear indifferent to the seemingly obvious emotional problem of their own generation.

It is all made worse by the illustrations of Stacy Heller Budnick. The unnamed child is so androgynous that although it appears to be a boy, in several of the pictures, you can't quite be sure he is not really a girl with closely cropped hair. The men who challenge the sea-turtle career are drawn as buffoons, but Dr. Tortuga is a young babe, her impossibly long blonde hair worn in the purposely unkempt curls of the 1970s Farrah Fawcett. So the choice for the little (presumed) boy is clear: listen to the fools closest to you and lose all hope of achieving your ambitions, or go with the advice of the blonde hottie with the Ph.D. and live the life of your dreams.

Dr. Dyer appears to be a motivational speaker, and perhaps, like many books by people with that job description, this one is basically a form of advertising. Whatever the reason it was published, "No Excuses" is not a textbook for teaching children the important lesson that, as you go through life, you should reach as far as you can possibly grasp. For some children, it can indeed come to pass that, to expand themselves, they must move beyond those whom they love and who love them, but that is a complicated and difficult quandary for more mature minds and hearts to absorb than those to whom this book is directed.

Great book to read with Elementary age children. The illustrations were great and the storyline was easy to follow. It is relatable to upper elementary students, and can act as a jumpstart for further discussions about perseverance and goal-setting.
On another note, it's a good reminder for Adults, too! STOP with ALL the EXCUSES, JUST DO IT!

Wayne Dyer's book, "No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way," is an excellent book that teaches children to exercise their power to overcome excuses and negative input from others.

The story gives you a birds eye view of a young child that has dreams of becoming a marine biologist. The main character is confronted with many outside opinions that cause contemplation and the possibility of giving up.

Dr. Dyer explains very clearly what excuses are and how to overcome them.

According to Dyer, "there is only one person an excuse comes from, and that is YOU."

The greatest asset of this this book is it's ability to show children that their dreams are important and you can become who you want by not letting excuses get in your way.

Dyer also includes a quiz at the end of the book that helps kids to learn what an excuse is and to help them better identify excuses in the future.

This is an incredible book that can be read over and over again.

Kids and adults will surely benefit from the message and I highly recommend it.

The kids have loved it. Sunday school and elementary school kids I have shared this were excited to hear this. WIll they remember it? What will be the results? Guess we need to leave that in others hands. I found it worthwhile to see several students beam after seeing and reading the story. Even one teenager found it so exciting... she told me that she will quit listening to the 'stupid teachers' and keep her goals now. School can be a big let down. Highly recommended and parents, you might get something out of it too.

It is great to find a positive book for youngsters today. My son is a perfectionist and it is difficult for him to try new things without being 100% right with it. So, this book has helped a lot, and me too!!!!

Thanks, and very affordable and worth the money.

It will be on my shelf whenever I or my son need a boost of confidence!

I am an elementary school counselor and had planned on using this for a lesson. Soooooooooooo disappointed when I purchased this book. The boy is on a journey to become a marine biologist, and many people give him reasons why he shouldn't be. His teacher told him that a marine biologist must be smart and that science really isn't his strength. His grandfather told him that everyone in the family grows up to be farmers. What?! The writing was so flat and boring, and I would be embarrased to read this to my students - especially since it includes the negative bit about the teacher. There are MUCH better ways to relate the importance of positive thinking. What a total waste of my money.

I downloaded this book and read it together with my 9 year old daughter on my iPad. I had hoped it would be a useful piece of inspirational Children's literature. It wasn't. The writing style is flat and lifeless. There's little to recommend this book, and the digitized version's formatting is atrocious. I'd like to say my daughter, who is a voracious reader, enjoyed the story, but unfortunately she found it as vacuous as I did.

Terrible.

Could anything be more transparently manipulative or contrived than this plot: a little boy with a wish is told by EVERYONE IMPORTANT IN HIS LIFE, "No, you can't be a marine biologist. You're not smart enough, it'll take too long, we don't have enough money for your college expenses, you should be an idiot farmer like the rest of us, you just don't have the brains to rise above your station", and then is set straight by a marine biologist he just so happens to meet on a school trip to the aquarium, who makes him write an 'excuses list', and then sends him on his way to achieve his lifelong dream? Which he (gasp! surprise!) does by the end of the book?

That's the whole story in a nutshell. I left nothing out. You don't even have to pay me $14.95 for the privilege of getting the whole message. Just think "The Little Engine That Could" dumbed down for uni-cellular life-forms.

Yes, that's right: I was astonished, too. Literary art at its finest.

This treacle occupies the same peg in the literary food chain as the Berenstain Bears series of didactic, moralizing sermons disguised as children's books. In the words of Mr. Potter, "sentimental hogwash!" What's next? Sending toddlers to AA and elementary-aged school children to The Forum? You see, the way literature works (literature that stands the test of time, at any rate) is this: you tell a good story (poem, play, novel, short story, etc.); you tell it well; you bring truthfulness, sincerity, art, and -- hopefully -- inspiration to the story; and you allow readers to embark on an imaginary journey that brings them to some new-found or forgotten insight into themselves, the world, or living. Or not -- the decision is theirs! And that goes for children's books as well. At the very least, see if you can manage to entertain them without insulting their intelligence.

But...if you must insist on sending them on your magical carpet ride of "how to achieve your dreams" or "I'm okay, you're okay", why don't you just send the little guys off to the church of the inner child, some book-trained 12-step minded therapists, or elitist nursery schools that tout "prepare them for success", and ban access of their as-yet unsullied imaginations to those who would know better (e.g, poets, artists, musicians, and other dreamers)?

Very sad...

PS As a librarian, I took it as my duty to remove this and other copies of this book from my school library's shelves immediately. They're behind my desk as examples of what literature is not supposed to be.