Customer Reviews

Seen and Heard: Teenagers Talk About Their Lives

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"Seen and Heard..." is a book that every adult should have to either remind themselves of what it is like to be a teenager or to be able to take ten steps back and help them evaluate/relate with their own children. This book gives an intelligent and insightful look into the drama of the life and thoughts of American teenagers in this particular generation.

This book will not teach parents about how to be better parents, but it does express many different viewpoints about being a teenager in this diverse culture of ours. The comments offered by the teens in this book are intelligent and razor-sharp, running the gamut of the emotional spectrum. Very metaphoric, their comments along with the stark black-and-white photographs carry the emotion home to the reader to embrace.

This book is a very nice package which makes an otherwise unreachable time for most adults come alive again, or, better yet, realistic again.

Seen and Heard...The title speaks to the content, which Mary Motley Kalergis welcomes from these ordinary/extraordinary Young People. I bought this for a dear Young Person in my life and began reading it when I got it home, prior to mailing it...What PROFOUND insight I was granted! What these children have to say will astound you with its depth, clarity, vision, and stark reality. Every voice illuminates a perspective worthy of considering. Each of them resonates with a sense of WHO they are--even as they question uncertainties about themselves and their futures--WHAT they know, HOW they see the world around them and all its beauty, hypocrisy and potential. Mostly this book is a testament to the LIFE of the generation now in our midst as young adults. They are an astounding 'addition' to a society that is destined to benefit from their outspoken, sincere sharing of what they believe.

This is beyond 'Required' reading...It is inviting, 'Inspired' reading...for anyone interesting in connecting on meaningful levels, and certainly for Young People looking for peers without the pressure...even ones they might never meet in their daily living experience.

Brava Mary!

As a particpant in the book, I was honored and grateful to have my story chosen to be shared with America. The experience was a wonderful carthartic one and allows me to have a published transcript and picture of exactly who I was at age 14, a person I am so different from now at age 20. Mary Kalergis has the wonderful ability to draw out things from people with her photographs, to divulge the deepest secrets of their hearts with her lens, to lock a single moment in time with one shot. Seen and Heard is a true snapshot of what it was like to be a young American growing up at the turn of the 21 century. I will treasure my signed copy forever.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Mary Kalergis and Gary Chassman/Verve Editions in the design and development of Seen and Heard. The stunning photographs and rivoting text have made this one of my favorite projects. I am interested to hear what readers think of the design approach I have chosen. Your comments are welcome. Please direct them to Stacey Hood at Big Eyedea Visual Design. (bigeyedea@madriver.com) Thank you. Enjoy!

This book is moving and inspriring to teens across the world