What It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out (Hardcover)

by David L. Marcus (Author) "THE GIRL on the phone, a reporter for a high school newspaper, had just read an article about teenagers I'd written for a national newsmagazine..." (more)
Key Phrases: wilderness counselors, therapeutic boarding school, restriction room, Mary Alice, Swift River, Costa Rica (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Motivated by a personal quest as a journalist and father, Marcus set out to report on the difficulties of being a teen today, and focused on the transformation of four troubled adolescents. His subjects engaged in activities like sneaking out of the house to have sex with multiple, random partners; stealing credit cards; snorting heroin; and engaging in self-mutilation. Their parents, desperate to help, sent the teens away from home, to the exclusive, $5,000-a-month Academy at Swift River in Massachusetts for 14 months of group therapy, wilderness survival and intensive academic courses. Marcus deftly intersperses his sharp observations with heart-wrenching statistics about the often crushing pressures of modern teenage life. The truth Marcus uncovers is significant, but not surprising: parents need to stay actively involved and interested in their children's lives. In the end, we're not even sure Swift River's program works: "nobody... could reliably predict who would triumphantly stride across the stage for graduation... and who would end up in a lock-down facility." However, as readers peer in from the outside, they learn to pinpoint the events—dealing with the death of a parent; being the victim of bullying; fighting overindulgence—and emotions that sent these (and many other teenagers) careening off their promising paths.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Marcus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was granted full access to students, parents, and staff at a therapeutic boarding school in western Massachusetts. The result is an astonishing profile of troubled teens: foulmouthed and truant Bianca; D. J., on the brink of failing and fascinated with fire; disengaged and depressed Tyrone, from the housing projects in Queens; and Mary Alice, drug addicted and sexually promiscuous. Through his focus on particular teens and their families, Marcus highlights the complexities of modern adolescence--studies show that one in four youths suffers from some kind of behavioral or emotional problem, including higher rates of suicide, depression, and delinquency. Marcus details the backgrounds, family lives, and personalities of the teens and their struggles with anger and pressure at home and at school. He then tracks their therapy and the slow, painful healing process. The teens build trust with their counselors and among themselves and finally rebuild their relationships with their families. This is a revealing and engrossing look at the recovery process for troubled teens. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (January 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618145451
• ISBN-13: 978-0618145454
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #614,708 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #6 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Education > Instruction Method > Alternative

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every parent of a young teenager should read this!, January 18, 2005

By	Suzanne Bissonnette (Simsbury, CT) - See all my reviews

David Marcus' eloquent and straight-forward descriptions of several troubled teens gives parents insights into many of the issues and challenges teens face today, whether they are considered at-risk or not. It is an unusual opportunity to hear from the teens' points of view what they face -- whether it is in a privileged suburban environment or in an under-resourced urban setting. The kids who had the opportunity to attend the Swift River program do not all wind up in happpy-ever-after endings, but perhaps they did absorb some better transactional skills; those who responded well may in fact be more emotionally evolved that most people in the world today.
Marcus does not proselytize or offer easy formulas for successful parenting, but the hallmarks of Swift River's model are available for all parents to practice: personal attention, clear roles and boundaries for what behaviors are acceptable, consequences for inappropriate behavior, open discussion of feelings, routines, and reinforcement of positive attributes and behaviors rather than material acquisition...oh, yeah, and minimum TV/electronics/exposure to violence and self-victimization. The question is: are most parents today mature enough to offer that model to their own children or do they need a dose of the Swift River approach themselves?!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Kid Turned Out OK, Was I Lucky or Smart, February 9, 2005

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those of us who are parents of adult children can only thank whatever lucky stars shined down and enabled us and our children grow up.

I look at the families in this book and can't help but see the problems that my daughter and our family faced during those school years. I read what happened to these kids, and we had our share. I still wonder how we got through while the kids in this book ran into trouble. My daughter retained her drive, ambitions, sanity. It seemingly could so easily have gone the other way.

This book presents the stories of several kids who had real problems growing up. They were lucky enough to get put into a school specially set up for problem kids. The detailed stories of four kids who somehow got out of their troubles. And unfortunately some others that didn't.

It's a book that makes you laugh, cry, and above all else think about your own parenting tasks.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that anyone can relate to, January 7, 2005

By	Stephanie P. Bergeron (Western Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What it Takes to Pull Me Through is an amazing book that profiles the experiences of four teenagers at the Swift River School. When reading it I felt that I could relate to all four of them. The feelings of the kids are real and author David Marcus gets an inside look at what drove them to do what they did. Marcus has a unique ability to notice important details and explain the feelings of the teens. All of us had our crazy teenage years and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a better understanding of why we form the identities that we do. I promise that you will not regret buying this book.