“A Totally Alien Life Form”: Teenagers by Sydney Lewis
Sydney Lewis interviewed about 60 teens to get this collection of 40 essays that document teen life, liberty and pursuit of popularity. She divides the essays into subjects like “Outcasts”, “Faith” and...
View ArticleThe Shared Heart: Portraits and Stories celebrating lesbian, gay and bisexual...
This is a beautiful book, not just because of how it is presented, but also because its content. Next to 40 stunning black and white photographs appear painful and sometimes funny feelings, stories,...
View ArticleIn My Room: Teenagers in their Bedrooms by Adrienne Salinger
This is a great book for the closeted peeping toms among you, because you get the voyeuristic thrill of seeing another person’s most intimate space – their bedroom. In this collection of forty photo...
View ArticleStarting with “I”: Personal Essay by Teenagers by Youth Communication, edited...
All of these teen essays were originally published in New Youth Connections, a newspaper completely written for and by teenagers in New York City. (get it, they’re both NYC?) These essays are about...
View ArticleSugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America by Rebecca Carroll
Meet a cross-section of black female teens from across the country and different economic levels. There’s Latisha, who’s two older brothers are in a gang. Nicole from Vermont has a white mother and a...
View ArticleA Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence by Patricia...
What if an adult – a normal, mom-type person – asked to follow you and your family for 3 years, watching everything you did and said – even the stuff your parents knew nothing about? That’s exactly...
View ArticleThe Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by...
When Brown University student Kevin Roose told his parents he wanted to attend Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University for a semester, they were obviously shaken. After all, they had raised him to be a good...
View ArticleColumbine by Dave Cullen
Columbine. A word that has become synonymous with terror, pain and sadness. So what compelled me to read and review a book about the worst school shooting America has ever known? Well, for much the...
View ArticleThe Good, the Bad and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us by...
Oh, Barbie. At least HALF of the people reading this post owned one, and probably EVERYONE reading it either played with or destroyed one. (My cousin used to set his sister’s Barbies on fire in the...
View ArticleReality Bytes: Non-fiction about teens and for teens
Hey! These books are about YOU and what adults think about YOU and what YOU think about yourselves. I read a lot of these books because I was trying to figure YOU out, and what kinds of things YOU like...
View ArticleRapture Practice: a true story by Aaron Hartzler
“Something you should know up front about my family: we believe that Jesus is coming back…I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future…I mean literally, like glance out the car...
View ArticleFetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole J. Georges
Nicole Georges first met Beija at an animal shelter when she was sixteen. Beija was a Shar-pei/Dachshund mix with “inflatable” ears and a fear of men and toddlers. Nicole was a punk rocker coming out...
View ArticleCalifornia Dreamin’ by Penelope Bagieu
After recently becoming completely enamored of Penelope Bagieu‘s Brazen, I was delighted to discover the author had also written this longer form, graphic biography of the indomitable Cass Elliot....
View ArticleIn My Room: Teenagers in their Bedrooms by Adrienne Salinger
This is a great book for the closeted peeping toms among you, because you get the voyeuristic thrill of seeing another person’s most intimate space – their bedroom. In this collection of forty photo...
View ArticleThe 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Sasha was an agender, white, private schooled teenager who loved invented languages, web comics and wearing skirts with vests. Richard was a straight, black, public schooled teenager who loved pulling...
View ArticleA First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Ahhh, thirteen! It is the best of ages (Finally a teenager! Finally some independence!) and the worst of ages (“What the heck is going on with my body?” “Why are my friends acting so weird?”)...
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