In the course of growing up, most children encounter a variety of dilemmas–situations in which they must make decisions–when they are at home, when they are at school, and when they are out on their own. If children are alone in these situations, they must make decisions and resolve the associated conflicts with little or no on-the-spot guidance from the parents, teachers, or other adults who care about them.

The purpose of What Do You Think? is to prepare children to make decisions and resolve conflicts before the need arises. It provides children with a list of questions and statements they can consider to help them understand their feelings, clarify their values, and develop skills in evaluating options, considering consequences, and making choices.

Of course, no book can be all things to all children because no one authors can imagine all the possible dilemmas, anticipate all probable approaches, and/or describe all practical options. For these reasons, What Do You Think? presents ideas to consider in making choices but does not tell the reader how to think or what to choose.

While What Do You Think? is notmoralistic, some issues may pose moral dilemmas. The basic premises of this book are 1) that you are responsible for your own life, 2) that the way to be in control of that life is to make your own choices, 3) that the way to have a better life is to make wiser choices, and 4) that you can learn to make wiser choices in the future by examining you unwise choices of the past and preparing in advance for the choices yet to come.

Encourage the children in you care to read one of these situations descriptions and – before turning the page – to think about what choices they would make if they found themselves on the horns of this particular dilemma. Select the dilemmas to be examined and modify your consideration of the related questions and statements to make them relevant to your particular family or classroom situations and appropriate for the maturity levels and abilities of your children.

The dilemmas described in this book make ideal topics for discussion. Situation descriptions can be used to spark dinner table conversation, to pass idle hours while traveling, to replace television programs and video games as a source of entertainment, or to fill the final restless moments before the school bell rings.

In addition to the descriptions of more than 70 situations, this book contains a five-page index and tips on how to get to know yourself, how to resolve conflicts, how to make friends, and how to be a friend.

Children who learn to view life's dilemmas as opportunities for making choices are more likely to choose wisely, suffer fewer negative consequences, establish more meaningful relationships, and create better lives for themselves and those around them.