
The Overachievers
The Secret Lives of Driven Kids
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $30.41
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Patricia Santomasso
About this listen
The best-selling author of Pledged returns with a groundbreaking look at the pressure to achieve faced by America's teens.
In Pledged, Alexandra Robbins followed four college girls to produce a riveting narrative that read like fiction. Now, in The Overachievers, Robbins uses the same captivating style to explore how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. During the year of her 10-year reunion, Robbins goes back to her high school, where she follows heart-tuggingly likeable students including "AP" Frank, who grapples with horrifying parental pressure to succeed; Audrey, whose panicked perfectionism overshadows her life; Sam, who worries his years of overachieving will be wasted if he doesn't attend a name-brand college; Taylor, whose ambition threatens her popular girl status; and The Stealth Overachiever, a mystery junior who flies under the radar.
Robbins tackles teen issues such as intense stress, the student and teacher cheating epidemic, sports rage, parental guilt, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that students are driven to suicide and depression because of a B.
With a compelling mix of fast-paced narrative and fascinating investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.
©2006 Alexandra Robbins (P)2021 Hachette BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
- Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
- By: Katherine Boo
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away.
-
-
An Antidote for Shantaram
- By Dr. on 06-14-12
By: Katherine Boo
-
Outliers
- The Story of Success
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
-
-
Engaging, but overrated
- By Scott T. Hards on 12-13-08
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
The Nurses
- A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital
- By: Alexandra Robbins
- Narrated by: Alexandra Robbins
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Nurses, New York Times best-selling author and award-winning journalist Alexandra Robbins peers behind the staff-only door to write a lively, fast-paced story and a riveting work of investigative journalism. Robbins followed real-life nurses in four hospitals and interviewed hundreds of others in a captivating audiobook filled with joy and violence, miracles and heartbreak, dark humor and narrow victories, gripping drama and unsung heroism.
-
-
Mostly on Point
- By Michael on 03-29-17
-
The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby....
-
-
Simple, Beautiful, and Exquisitely Textured
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-13
-
Thank You for Arguing, Third Edition
- What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion
- By: Jay Heinrichs
- Narrated by: Jay Heinrichs
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The time-tested secrets taught in this book include Cicero's three-step strategy for moving an audience to action and Honest Abe's Shameless Trick for lowering an audience's expectations. And it's also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians' use of code language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of persuasive tricks, including Stalin's Timing Secret and the Yoda Technique. Whether you're an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments, this audiobook is for you.
-
-
I'm on my second "listening" of this one!
- By Maria on 05-26-18
By: Jay Heinrichs
-
Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- By: J. D. Vance
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
-
-
In Mamaw's Contradictions Lay Great Wisdom
- By Cynthia on 11-20-16
By: J. D. Vance
-
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
- Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
- By: Katherine Boo
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away.
-
-
An Antidote for Shantaram
- By Dr. on 06-14-12
By: Katherine Boo
-
Outliers
- The Story of Success
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning audiobook, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" - the best and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: That is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
-
-
Engaging, but overrated
- By Scott T. Hards on 12-13-08
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
The Nurses
- A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital
- By: Alexandra Robbins
- Narrated by: Alexandra Robbins
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Nurses, New York Times best-selling author and award-winning journalist Alexandra Robbins peers behind the staff-only door to write a lively, fast-paced story and a riveting work of investigative journalism. Robbins followed real-life nurses in four hospitals and interviewed hundreds of others in a captivating audiobook filled with joy and violence, miracles and heartbreak, dark humor and narrow victories, gripping drama and unsung heroism.
-
-
Mostly on Point
- By Michael on 03-29-17
-
The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby....
-
-
Simple, Beautiful, and Exquisitely Textured
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-13
-
Thank You for Arguing, Third Edition
- What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion
- By: Jay Heinrichs
- Narrated by: Jay Heinrichs
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The time-tested secrets taught in this book include Cicero's three-step strategy for moving an audience to action and Honest Abe's Shameless Trick for lowering an audience's expectations. And it's also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians' use of code language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of persuasive tricks, including Stalin's Timing Secret and the Yoda Technique. Whether you're an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments, this audiobook is for you.
-
-
I'm on my second "listening" of this one!
- By Maria on 05-26-18
By: Jay Heinrichs
-
Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- By: J. D. Vance
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
-
-
In Mamaw's Contradictions Lay Great Wisdom
- By Cynthia on 11-20-16
By: J. D. Vance
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
How Starbucks Saved My Life
- A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
- By: Michael Gates Gill
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his 50s, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the time he turned 60, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair ended his 20-year marriage. Then, he was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor, prognosis undetermined. Around the same time, his girlfriend gave birth to a son.
-
-
What's wrong with the truth
- By MadRudedog on 10-03-07
-
He's Not Lazy
- Empowering Your Son to Believe in Himself
- By: Adam Price PhD
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, capable teenage boys may look lazy. But dig a little deeper, writes child psychologist Adam Price in He's Not Lazy, and you'll often find conflicted boys who want to do well in middle and high school but are afraid to fail and so do not try. This audiobook can help you become an ally with your son as he discovers greater self-confidence and accepts responsibility for his future.
-
-
Good but contradicting
- By Meredith on 02-28-20
By: Adam Price PhD
-
The Smartest Kids in the World
- And How They Got That Way
- By: Amanda Ripley
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year.
-
-
a Wanna-be fiction writer avoids the subject
- By Niall on 11-23-13
By: Amanda Ripley
-
The Boys
- A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
- By: Ron Howard, Clint Howard
- Narrated by: Ron Howard, Clint Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Happy Days, The Andy Griffith Show, Gentle Ben - these shows captivated millions of TV viewers in the ’60s and ’70s. Join award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard as they frankly and fondly share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors.
-
-
The recording is awful, loud and then quiet
- By Sandy Williams on 10-16-21
By: Ron Howard, and others
-
I Left My Homework in the Hamptons
- What I Learned Teaching the Children of the One Percent
- By: Blythe Grossberg
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben orders daily room service while living in a five-star hotel. Olivia collects luxury-brand sneakers worn by celebrities. Dakota jets off to Rome when she needs to avoid drama at school. Welcome to the inner circle of New York’s richest families, where academia is an obsession, wealth does nothing to soothe status anxiety and parents will try just about anything to gain a competitive edge in the college admissions rat race.
-
-
Why such bad reviews?
- By vicki on 10-23-22
By: Blythe Grossberg
-
Under Pressure
- Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls
- By: Lisa Damour Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Lisa Damour Ph.D.
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Untangled presents an urgently needed guide to the alarming increase in anxiety and stress experienced by girls from elementary school through college.
-
-
Everyone should read/listen to this book.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-10-19
-
Never Enough
- When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—and What We Can Do About It
- By: Jennifer Breheny Wallace
- Narrated by: Jennifer Breheny Wallace
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. They jam-pack their schedules with AP classes, fill every waking hour with resume-padding activities, and even sabotage relationships with friends to “get ahead.” Family incomes and schedules are stretched to the breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Yet this drive to optimize performance has only resulted in skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in America’s highest achieving schools.
-
-
If you live or work in one of these communities, you will see yourself
- By Paula on 09-04-23
-
Love, Teach
- Real Stories and Honest Advice to Keep Teachers from Crying Under Their Desks
- By: Kelly Treleaven
- Narrated by: Kelly Treleaven
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every teacher will tell you the first years are the hardest, and even the most confident of the pack sometimes ask themselves, Am I cut out for this? Kelly Treleaven, the teacher behind Love, Teach, wants you to know that you're not alone, and that yes, she has cried under her desk, too. Treleaven's blog has become a sensation in the education world, known for its heartfelt, high-spirited dispatches straight from the trenches and its practical advice. Here, she gives rookie teachers the advice she wishes she'd had when she started out in a large district in Houston.
-
-
Best Teaching Guidance Book Ever!!!
- By Anonymous User on 11-07-23
By: Kelly Treleaven
-
What Made Maddy Run
- The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen
- By: Kate Fagan
- Narrated by: Kate Fagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From noted ESPN commentator and journalist Kate Fagan, the heartbreaking and vital story of college athlete Madison Holleran, whose death by suicide rocked the University of Pennsylvania campus and whose life reveals with haunting detail and uncommon understanding the struggle of young people suffering from mental illness today.
-
-
Left me feeling devastated
- By Matthew Coppins on 08-13-17
By: Kate Fagan
-
Pregnant Girl
- A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families
- By: Nicole Lynn Lewis
- Narrated by: Nicky Sunshine
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An activist calls for better support of young families so they can thrive and reflects on her experiences as a Black mother and college student fighting for opportunities for herself and her child. Pregnant Girl presents the possibility of a different future for young mothers - one of success and stability - in the midst of the dismal statistics that dominate the national conversation.
-
-
Political
- By Amazon Customer on 01-16-23
-
The Inequality Machine
- How College Divides Us
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Paul Tough
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From best-selling author Paul Tough, an indelible and explosive book on the glaring injustices of higher education, including unfair admissions tests, entrenched racial barriers, and crushing student debt. Now updated and expanded for the pandemic era. Combining vivid and powerful personal stories with deep, authoritative reporting, Paul Tough explains how we got into this mess and explores the innovative reforms that might get us out.
-
-
A must-read/listen!
- By Jetaun Davis on 05-20-21
By: Paul Tough
What listeners say about The Overachievers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 11-01-21
I wish it was a work of fiction
The author vividly describes a cast of characters in the midst of the high stakes game of the college admissions process. She gives an eye opening look at how far people will go to get into the “elite” schools. On the flip side, she gives some insight to the tool it takes on the youth of America. Considering it was written over a decade ago, there are pieces that are outdated but most of the material still holds true today. It does worry me for what my children will go through shortly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Liz
- 08-09-22
Great! But lengthy
I enjoyed this book, especially considering that it was a summer reading book that I was dreading reading. It gave some incredible insight and I think it has some lessons that I will hold with me though my life. My only issue is that the story was incredibly slow and could have gotten the point across much sooner. I also felt that the same points were being made so many times that the authors ideas began to feel stale. However, I would still recommend this book because the insight it can provide to students, parents, teachers, school boards, colleges, etc. is so valuable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!