Review - Life is Not a Candy Store

Life is Not a Candy Store: It’s The Way to the Candy Store
BY: Tal Yanai
PUBLISHED BY: Bat-El Publishing
PUBLISHED IN: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9832025-0-9
Pages: 72
Reviewed by Billy Burgess

Life is Not a Candy Store: It’s the Way to the Candy Store is a Spiritual Guide to the Road of Life for Teens, intended to be a self-esteem aimed at young adults, but the book’s message can easily reach most adults. Peer pressure from friends, and even your teachers and parents can be overwhelming for any teenager. Author Tal Yanai uses more of a Christian/spiritual approach in dealing with these matters. Being at an adolescent age can be difficult for anyone. Do you follow your peer group? Or do you follow your own road/path? In order to find your road, but you must first understand yourself, where your ‘soul come into the physical body.’ You’ll be faced with many challenges while trying to achieve your life goals, but with God’s help you can be guided in the right direction.

Having faith is one of the main messages of Life is Not a Candy Store: It’s The Way to the Candy Store. Personally being a victim of High School torture and bulling, I was eager to review the book. Life has many trials, some you’ll conquer and others you’ll fail. As a teenager, you’re not fully emotionally developed, and you won’t react to life’s hardships the same way as an adult would. I recommend the book to teenagers and parents.

*I would like to thank the author for sending me a review copy.


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Author Bio


During his formative years, Tal Yanai was not happy with his reality. What he was creating in his life was not in alignment with what he wanted in his heart or what he knew and deeply felt was possible.

As a struggling student, he was considered a troublemaker in school. Then one day, during a bike trip from the kibbutz to the sea, he was asked to take charge and make sure none of the other kids lagged behind. For the first time in his life, at age fifteen, Tal got a taste of what it meant to assume responsibility and be a leader. This one experience planted the seed for his goal to assume a leadership role in his later life. After finishing high school, having been raised on Kibbutz, Einat, Israel, he volunteered to serve as a leader in the Kibbutzim Youth Movement, which focused on principles such as volunteering, mutual help, and giving to one’s community and country.

In tenth grade he was diagnosed with dyslexia, which explained his learning difficulties but it did little to ease his frustration with himself and his everyday struggles. He had no mentors he could confide in or look up to. And no matter how hard his parents tried, his living on a kibbutz meant they had little influence during his teenager years.

At the age of twenty-three, when he moved to the U.S., Tal found solace in a higher power and started on a spiritual path, which has led him to align himself with his soul’s essence and mission.
For two years he worked as an historical analyst at the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, established by Steven Spielberg after the filming of Schindler’s List. As part of his job, he listened every day to testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Many were children or teenagers during WWII and their stories greatly influenced Tal’s decision to become involved with educating youth, so he proceeded to get his Teaching Credential in Social Studies.

Bringing two wonderful children into the world gave him a new sense of urgency to share and teach everything he’s learned about God and spirituality. Today, Tal teaches Hebrew and Judaic Studies in Temple Beth Hillel in the San Fernando Valley as he continues his quest to explore the meaning of soul and achieve his full potential as a spiritual teacher.

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