This book should inspire both teens and their parents. Bradley (Yes, Your Parents Are Crazy! A Teen Survival Guide
) draws on his 30 years of experience as a teen psychologist to profile 20 adolescents who dealt courageously with pain and suffering. In lively, empathetic prose, he relates cases involving difficult issues indeed, such as the serious illness of a parent, suicide, bullying and abortion. One boy, Adam, baldly states his determination to keep trying to commit suicide: "life is too painful for me.... It's unfair that all of you should make me stay here and suffer.
" But with Bradley's help, Adam finds the small part of himself that wants to live and helps it to grow. Karin's case ends more tragically. After successfully completing rehab for alcoholism, she is taunted by local bullies for not drinking, abandoned by her boyfriend, gets drunk and shoots herself. In a particularly poignant anecdote, a boy named Nick struggles to tell his father that he is gay. The revelation surprisingly leads to a new closeness between father and son. This informed and compassionate look at the courage of teenagers highlights the ability of young people to triumph over adversity. (Sept.)
