STEAM
Graphic
Novel
High/Low
Chapter
Book
Large
Print
Series Tracker
Manga
Big
Book
Board
Book
Hot
Title
Adult
Language
Mature
Content
Ebook
Ebook
MUA (Multi User Access)
Light Novel
| Paperback ©2001 | -- |
Secrets. Literary collections.
Youths' writings.
Youths' writings.
Secrets. Literary collections.
Franco's You Hear Me? Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys BKL O 1 00 was frank and beautiful. Now she's collected the voices of a wide range of girls in poetry and immediate prose that speak with power and uncertainty, about body image, seduction and betrayal, courage and failure, shame and pride. Nina Nickles' black-and-white photos are a stunning addition. They are never literal views of the words but capture a diverse group of today's teenagers in all their various moods: as they cover up their secrets or celebrate being smart and strong or strut in the Hallway between Lunch and English (Freud can kiss my sexually ambiguous arse). There's not much sexual explicitness or cursing, but the talk is free--colloquial, ironic, sly, straightforward, sometimes angry or sad. Perhaps some of the messages are too articulate (I break the stereotype of a girl as a dainty little thing who needs a man by her side in order to do anything), but teens will listen and see themselves.
Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)This simplified account of Pocahontas's life and of fifteenth-century European and Native American relations strives for cultural sensitivity in the text and in the brightly colored illustrations, but many details are presented without any interpretation. Small text boxes and a final page add facts to a book that's a good reader but simplistic history. Ind.
Kirkus ReviewsThese 45 pieces, most poetry but some prose, come from the hands and minds of girls across the country. They're paired with black-and-white photos that, while not posed to match the poems, often resonate quite effectively. Sixteen-year-old Theresa Hassfeld's "Escape" faces a picture of a girl with her hair floating behind her in a bathtub, like the drowned Ophelia; other images focus on body parts—sneaker-clad feet, breasts, hands. With the self-consciousness comes a brimming self-awareness: 15-year-old Idit Meltzer Agam's incantation of "feminine" words; Jessie Childress in "New Honesty," writing, "Like a plastic ball, / I toss between myself / and the various identities / I have been assigned." Melissa Parker writes, with rue and pain, "I broke my own heart so many times," in "Born at 15." There is the occasional flash of amusement—15-year-old Danya Goodman writes in "Hallway between Lunch and English," "we march together toward / the war we cannot name / but at least we are dressed for it." Sure to find its audience and to inspire other girls—and boys—to write it down. (Poetry. 12 )
School Library Journal (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)Gr 8 Up-In allowing the words of teens from across the nation to shine through, without polishing or pushing, Franco has succeeded in compiling one of the brightest collections out there today. In a mixture of prose and poetry, the young women express their fears, dreams, relationships, and angst. There are some poetic turns of phrases here ("we put on our chatter/like red lipstick/with the same amount/of greasy enthusiasm") and some strong language. And while the poems are triumphant in their realism, the book is elevated by the inclusion of gritty, unposed black-and-white photographs. These pictures, not taken to illustrate the poems, do so in an exemplary fashion. Like snapshots from personal photo albums, the images of a multicultural array of "everygirls" are harmonious complements to this outstanding collection. A fine companion to You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Candlewick, 2000). Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI
ALA Booklist (Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)
ALA/YALSA Best Book For Young Adults
Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)
ILA Young Adults' Award
Kirkus Reviews
ALA/YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
School Library Journal (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)
Voice of Youth Advocates
Wilson's High School Catalog
Wilson's Junior High Catalog
Do you know my secret,
Did I tell you it last night,
Were you listening to my dreams,
Were you hiding out of sight?
Do you look to find my secret,
Reading letters, reading notes,
Picking up sometimes on phone calls,
Opening books to see what I wrote?
Do you really want to know my secret,
Will it answer all your questions,
Take away your mass of worries?
Or maybe, you could ask for my suggestions.
Do you ever think to ask me about my secret,
Being honest and forthright,
With no lies or hidden feelings?
Only then will my secret come to light.
Jessica L. McCloskey, age 16
ESCAPE
I look inside me and I don’t see it
I don’t see the power
The confidence you say I have
You say I can do anything
That I’m sure of myself and my intentions
And I wonder
But I don’t know
If it’s all there
Waiting for the opportunity
to jump into you
And try to help you
Fix you
Ask you
Why? Because I don’t know
I wait anxiously
Feeling my stomach
A block of ice
Chipping away, melting,
then freezing up again
Who can I follow?
Cuz I don’t want to lead
I ask myself every question
There are temporary answers
But I know more
Like everybody seems to know more
And I still don’t know how
Cuz it’s nice to ignore confrontation
Avoid conflict
Watch my rainbow
And let you watch yours
But the universe knows more
I must take this test just like everyone
Takes tests
I am closing in on the sky
Hoping it will try to escape
And I know I will let it get away
Like I let a lot of things get away
Cuz then I won’t have to continue the search
For my power
Theresa Hossfeld, age 16
NEW HONESTY
Today I gave up
a promising career of "truth."
Profound state of love
stepped in like a puzzle piece.
Completing, no, not
the Empire State Building,
not Mt. Rushmore or
van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Completing instead
my departure from "honesty."
Can I find a balance
between me and
the box I call my family?
I want equilibrium.
I want subtle change.
I want to tell the Truth,
not the truth of the woman
who snapped on a collar
and named me alive.
FINDING JOY
I found myself a place
to be, to play
a day went by or maybe two
no thoughts of you to crowd my empty mind
I find my body is to me
as lovely as
a budding tree
a cat with grace
and emerald eyes
so unconcerned with shapely thighs
just me
Invisibly
a girl
inside this shape
a woman’s hips and breasts
so much wider, softer than the rest
I found myself a crystal blue
like nymphs or faeries do
I never thought of you
or what you’d think of me
I found my body was
a mass of ground
the earth inside of me
behind my vinyl walls of
picture perfection
I was the earth, the sky
it made me want to cry
to shout the softness
I have never dared let out
my curves, my hair
a part of who I was
a blonde in a clear glass pond
myself a flow of nature
alone
finding joy
Marissa Korbel, age 16
WORDS
Words fly across the paper like blackbirds across the sky
and I think to myself why oh
why oh why
why why,
Why would anyone use words like
I hate and
I can’t and
I quit therefore I won’t and
Goodbye.
Good bye?
Why not take that beautiful skill and use words like
I love and
I can and
I will or
at least I’ll try and
Hello . . . hello,
because I believe in word conservation
and if you’re going to use a word at all
it should be one that glides off of your tongue
I know I am strong
both in my convictions and in myself.
I know I am beautiful
both inside and out.
I know I am powerful
and growing more so.
I know I will do just fine.
Laura Veuve, age 15
Things I Have to Tell You. Copyright (c) 2001 Betsy Franco. Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Excerpted from Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Teenage girls tell their own stories — in compelling poetry and prose paired with 42 striking photographs.
The voices in this collection have so much to question, so much to grieve. They have so much to celebrate, so much to rage against. They’re ready to speak up and begin the conversation — with you and with the world. More than thirty uncensored poems are accompanied by Nina Nickles’s masterful photographs, which sensitively capture the moods and essence of adolescence. Here, painted in the words of teenage girls, is a portrait of their dreams and desires - a record of hope, disillusionment, anger, joy, sadness, and most of all, strength.