i have mixed feelings about this...i thought it was an inspiring book...and the teens had quite a story to tell...i listened to the audio book...so the stories almost came alive...but i'll honestly say...by the middle of junior year i was about to pull out my hair...if i had to hear one more story about escaping the drug war in the neighborhood or the creepy adult who touched them inappropriately i was going to drive off the road...which just points out that this was nonfiction not fiction so there wasn't a fast conclusion or "prettying up" of the storyline to make it more readable...i finished this and another memoir about the same time...i have determined that i'm not a memoir reader...day to day activites don't interest me too much...