Author, speaker, expert college admissions coach.

Testimonials.

DAVE MARCUS / Author / What it Takes / Testimonials

PRAISE FOR WHAT IT TAKES

The critics liked my first book, calling it “astonishing” (Booklist), “intelligent” (USA Today), and “an overwhelming time commitment by an author” (my daughter).

Now I await your review, on Amazon or elsewhere. Contact me and let me know your thoughts—even one sentence is fine.

Reviews

“This should be required reading for all parents of teenagers. Yet, ‘required reading’ implies boring reading. And What It Takes to Pull Me Through is fascinating. More than simply a cautionary tale, this extremely well-written book provides useful insight and a welcome dose of hope. It’s the closest thing you’ll find to a road map for raising adolescents – and keeping them safe.”
– Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors and Dry

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“David L. Marcus does what nonfiction writers do when they’re at their very best – get inside of the skin of a character and feel everything. These kids breathe fire and hope, break your heart and heal it, and then show how teenagers can wander through the darkest woods toward sunlight. In all, a profoundly moving journey.”
– Ron Suskind, author of A Hope In The Unseen and The Price of Loyalty
“One of the most revealing insights in this wonderful book is how familiar these troubled kids are to us. It shows just how thin the line is between the world of the normal adolescent and those who are fighting for their emotional health.”
– Daniel J. Kindlon, Ph.D., author of Tough Times, Good Children and co-author of Raising Cain
“One of the most revealing insights in this wonderful book is how familiar these troubled kids are to us. It shows just how thin the line is between the world of the normal adolescent and those who are fighting for their emotional health.”
– Madeleine Blais, author of In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle
“By combining no-limits reporting with a wide-open heart, David Marcus allows us to witness something of a miracle: a group of teenagers in the harrowing and hopeful process of finding out who they are.”
– George Colt, author of The Big House
“Compelling, empathetic and hopeful, What It Takes to Pull Me Through is for parents and teens alike. It will be of special use to families experiencing emotional trauma or fracture, offering both solace and a road map of survival that goes far beyond self-help.”
– Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
“What Marcus uncovers is startling, heartbreaking, and finally redemptive. This book reads like a thriller. A thriller about adolescence, about how we love and how we lose each other and what it takes to help a child find her way home.”
– Alison Smith, author of Name All the Animals
“Amid the pain and sadness that suffuse these pages, there is more wisdom and guidance about childrearing than an entire shelf of how-to self-help books combined. This is journalism at its best: unflinching, meticulous, gripping, true.”
– Sue Halpern, author of The Book pf Hard Things

“An extraordinary and poignant journey into the lives and inner worlds of troubled adolescents. A compelling, intimate account of developmental breakdown and the road to recovery.”
– Elizabeth Aries, Ph.D., Amherst College, Editor, Adolescent Behavior
“I’m glad he’s finished writing. He’s not so crabby anymore.”
– B. Marcus, age eight, Author of “My Bronx Zoo Trip.”
“His book is about cool kids at a school that has Popsicles. I love them – the kids, I mean. The Popsicles are good, too.”
– T. Marcus, age five

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