....AND ONE MORE!
"Boys are individuals, not beings to be studied by looking at grades, test scores, and statistics on emotional and behavioral problems, says journalist Malina Saval. Saval makes her case by profiling 10 very different teenage boys. She allows them to describe their interests, reveal their feelings and opinions, and talk without judgment about all the aspects of their lives that they keep secret from their parents. "My mission was to secure a small group of boys and focus on each one over a period of months," she writes in the book's introduction. "I selected the 10 boys you will meet in this book on the basis of their insight and their courage to speak candidly about topics ranging from depression to sex to drugs to parental resentment." Readers will meet 14-yearold Maxwell Scheffield, the "mini-adult," who struggles to fit in with kids his age. "It's tough to relate with other kids ... I don't know many kids like me. I don't feel popular at all ... I feel threatened ... I keep my cell phone on vibrate so I can call 911 if anything happens to me," he reveals.
There's also 16-year-old Apollo, a recovering drug addict, who says life without drugs seems maddeningly slow. The precocious teen describes himself as an "indie" (and another word not suitable for a family newspaper).
"I don't think it's a stretch to say that no one in high school is really comfortable with who they are, and that all this desperate clique-searching is really just a vain attempt at trying to define oneself and discover where you'll really end up belonging," Apollo says.
A 17-year-old who labels himself "the gay, vegan, hearing-impaired Republican," reveals, "No matter how I try to describe why I feel lonely, no explanation really fits. ... I think that on some level, everyone has a freakish side that they don't think anyone will understand, unless you're deluded." "If we want to know our boys," Saval explains, "we must engage them in ways that prove we are truly interested in what they have to tell us, not just what we think we want to hear." Saval listens. The result is that in their words and through Saval's keen observations, we're allowed to meet 10 teenage boys who are complex, insightful, thoughtful, optimistic and resilient. You can't learn that from test scores."
- Rhonda Owen, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
There's also 16-year-old Apollo, a recovering drug addict, who says life without drugs seems maddeningly slow. The precocious teen describes himself as an "indie" (and another word not suitable for a family newspaper).
"I don't think it's a stretch to say that no one in high school is really comfortable with who they are, and that all this desperate clique-searching is really just a vain attempt at trying to define oneself and discover where you'll really end up belonging," Apollo says.
A 17-year-old who labels himself "the gay, vegan, hearing-impaired Republican," reveals, "No matter how I try to describe why I feel lonely, no explanation really fits. ... I think that on some level, everyone has a freakish side that they don't think anyone will understand, unless you're deluded." "If we want to know our boys," Saval explains, "we must engage them in ways that prove we are truly interested in what they have to tell us, not just what we think we want to hear." Saval listens. The result is that in their words and through Saval's keen observations, we're allowed to meet 10 teenage boys who are complex, insightful, thoughtful, optimistic and resilient. You can't learn that from test scores."
- Rhonda Owen, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
posted by Malina at
6:57 PM
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