We know that you aren’t the average reader. We know that you aren’t interested in reading about ancient battles and how to build pop-rockets. You want what’s real.
That’s why we’ve redesigned our young adult nonfiction to reflect you and the world around you.
The Teen Life section will feature books that are hard-hitting, fast paced, fact based and real.
Here are just a few of this week’s brand new titles.
Pearson, who starred in HBO’s The Wire , was born ill and underweight from her mother’s drug habits, and later worked for a crack dealer in East Baltimore. At age 15 she killed a woman in self-defense and wound up in the Jessup State Penitentiary. She got a wakeup call when the notorious dealers she called “Uncle” and “Father” wound up respectively dead and imprisoned for life. Once out on parole, Pearson took an assembly-line job and “didn’t give [her neighborhood dope dealers] a second glance,” but after repeatedly getting fired because of her rap sheet, she returned to dealing before a chance meeting gave her a way off the street for good. This isn’t a light celebrity bio, but a powerful story of someone trying to find her way in a dark world, realizing she can still choose her life’s direction even in tremendously difficult circumstances. Pearson’s narrative is spare, even poetic, rendering traumatic moments all the more powerful. (Nov.) –Staff (Reviewed September 17, 2007) (Publishers Weekly, vol 254, issue 37, p44)
On her hit television show, Tiny and Toya, Antonia ‘Toya’ Carter seems to be living the good life. She has a beautiful home, good friends, and is pursuing her dreams. In spite of appearances, hers has been a life of peaks and valleys. Abandoned by her parents as a child, Toya was passed from one family member to another as her mother sank deeper into drug addiction. Feeling unloved and unwanted, Toya fell into the arms of fifteen-year-old rising musical star, Dwayne Michael Carter, known these days as rapper, Lil’ Wayne. She ended up pregnant at the tender age of fourteen.
In Priceless Inspirations, Toya takes the reader on a journey through the pain of a teenage mother who struggles to raise a child while still a child herself—all without the benefit of guidance from her own mother. Using the words she recorded in journals she wrote as a teen and the wisdom she has gained in the years since, Toya bares her personal struggles. She poignantly uses her experiences to offer young women real and heartfelt understanding and advice about sex, relationships, motherhood and growing up.
(Farrah Gray BET Network Release )
A generation stands on the brink of a “rebelution.” A growing movement of young people is rebelling against the low expectations of today’s culture by choosing to “do hard things” for the glory of God. And Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge.
Do Hard Things is the Harris twins’ revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential.
Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life. Then they map out five powerful ways teens can respond for personal and social change.
Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of an already-happening teen revolution challenges a generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.
“Most people don’t expect you to understand what we’re going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don’t expect you to care. And even if you care, they don’t expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don’t expect it to last. We do.” – Alex and Brett
