Sydney Lewis, who worked for years with the legendary oral historian Studs Terkel, interviewed young people between the ages of thirteen and nineteen from across the country to gather the material for this book. Forty teens talk about sex in the age of AIDS, violence on the streets and at home, and the widespread availability of drugs.

But they also talk about their concern for the environment, politics, race relations, education, their religious and spiritual needs, and how technology both excites and frightens them.

Most searing are emotional discussions of what's really important in their lives: the people for whom they care and who care for them; parents and grandparents; love-hate relationships with siblings and friends; and their desire for acceptance and independence. In a book that simultaneously confirms and explodes all the cliches about life as an adolescent, they discuss plans, fears, ambitions, and even nostalgia for the not-so-long-gone simplicity of childhood.