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You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco Young Adult)
 
 
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You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco Young Adult) (Paperback)

~ Betsy Franco (Editor), Nina Nickles (Photographer)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco Young Adult) + Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Betsy Franco Young Adult) + The Rose that Grew from Concrete
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-Through these mostly free-verse lines, the hopes, dreams, fears, and desires of young men from different cultures and backgrounds shine through. They pull no punches with their words in these openly honest, raw, and sometimes tender selections. They talk about what you'd expect-drugs, girls, AIDS, sex, parents-sometimes in unexpected ways. For example, 12-year-old Quantedius Hall's first stanza-"Time Somebody Told Me/That I am lovely, good and real/That I am beautiful inside/If they only knew/How that would make me feel." What do these boys want? "I want to live my life/through peace and knowledge./-I want to wake up/to clean, fresh air/blowing in my face," says 14-year-old John Merrell. Others speak of the fear of alternately being abandoned and loved, of being shunned or ridiculed. Obviously, there's some harsh language and tough situations but they add to the believability and timeliness of the words. You Hear Me? is a fresh approach to hearing what today's youths have to say, and it's refreshing that the words came straight from them.
Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-12. With more urgency than many YA novels, the poems and brief prose pieces in this fine anthology speak directly in teen voices about boys coming of age. They talk about love and anger ("I woke up pissed this morning"); about sex ("some good pussy") and jealousy ("You fell for gelboy and his hair"); about the "monster" drugs, family warmth, rejection; conformity, and bullying; about being gay ("queer is more than / cocks and A.I.D.S.") and accepting that your father is gay. The poetry is rooted in a wide range of neighborhoods, families, and classrooms, and the language is direct and frank, with a rhythm ("I'm / not a / hip hop / Dred / retro / 4-pierced brother") and a physical immediacy in the imagery. Some voices are more private, about secrets, sadness, the weariness of the blues, and the loneliness when a girlfriend leaves ("the photograph torn in half"). In one of the best pieces, a boy thinks about his birth mother ("What if . . . ?"). There are no intrusive illustrations, just the images and music of the words, and lots of white space that makes it easy to browse. Many teens will recognize their search for themselves. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Paperback: 107 pages
  • Publisher: Candlewick (May 1, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 076361159X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0763611590
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,376 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #25 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Writing
    #28 in  Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Boys & Men > Nonfiction
    #42 in  Books > Children's Books > Literature > Literary Criticism & Collections

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Betsy Franco
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco Young Adult)
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best I've Seen Yet, August 28, 2000
By "waveed" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
I work with an online magazine with teenage writing as the primary content. When I got my hands on a copy of this book, I thought it was right up my alley, and it was. I never expected the quality and scope of the selections. Some of the poetry is so unbelievably striking--let's just say that this book is not just for teens. Readers of many ages will appreciate it. I really loved it, and I'm even considering reviewing it for my zine.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars activism w/ heart and soul, August 11, 2000
By maria damon (mpls, mn USA) - See all my reviews
although i acted as a consultant for this book and thus had some familiarity with its contents before publication, i was pretty unprepared for how beautiful and effective the finished product was when it arrived in the mail. It's a jewel, from its restrained and lyrical cover photo to its soulful content --poems, stories and essays by teenage boys from around the country. My personal faves include Fred Brown's "The Bus Stop," a choppy, minimalist anecdote about a neighborhood domestic altercation with a knockout last line worthy of Hemingway or Raymond Carver; Rigo Landin's "Ode to My Hair Tail," in which a carefully-tended object of personal adornment becomes, in the final stanza, a spiritual offering; Kenny Weiss's "I Hate School," a brilliant all-out assault on verbal decorum and the social rules it helps to maintain; Seth Chappell's "Does My Mother Look Like This?", a wistfully speculative love-poem to THE most important missing person in the world; and countless others. This book is an activist intervention into all the current talk by "experts" *about* boys; it short-circuits all the static of debate by bringing boys' creativity and soulfulness to the fore and letting them speak for themselves. Already the book is being used in group-home workshops to inspire boys in serious need of speaking and being heard; I can't think of a better affirmation of its power than this, its use as a tool against despair and creative waste. Few books achieve such a perfect harmony of artistic and social value. This book is where it's at, and I'm happy to have had even a small role in its development. (If you think this review represents a conflict of interest, check out the book and judge for yourself!)
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars great-except for first entry..., March 4, 2005
"Time somebody told me" has been around a lot longer than the young man who submitted it - Otherwise, love the real, true feelings expressed!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too bad about the bad language
It's nice that a book can share writings by teenage boys so all can read about their pain or praise, but I was dumbfounded to see that several writings were included that had... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Cathy

1.0 out of 5 stars NOT FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
I work in a bookstore, and this book was ordered by middle school teachers in a large quantity to stimulate reading and writing among their (very low income population) students... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Suburban Chicago Book Seller

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read
I bought 3 copies of this book to supplement my poetry books for a unit on poetry. Every day they were the first books off the shelf. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Jazzy

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Fridays are poetry days in my classroom. Every few weeks, I pull out this book, or Things I Have to Tell You, and read a poem or two. Read more
Published on July 13, 2007 by S. Kay Murphy

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest
This book is a genuine, heartfelt, and very honest portrait of teenagers in urban America. There are those, no doubt, who will be offended by its explicit language and subject... Read more
Published on March 3, 2007 by Katie, teacher

1.0 out of 5 stars Appalling
The facts about this book are clear from these excerpts from an article in the New York Daily News,Dec. Read more
Published on December 8, 2006 by Kevin Killion

5.0 out of 5 stars Tender? Deep? Try Tolerance Run Amok
{First of all, I rate this a 1-Star book. I mistakenly submitted my review with five stars and you can only edit the review - not the rating.}

(... Read more
Published on April 11, 2004 by Mike Donovan

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry for the Teenage Boy!
This poetry book edited by Betsey Franco is an excellent book.The poetry is written by teenage boys.The writing is freeverse. Read more
Published on January 30, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars I don't normally read poetry, but this was fabulous
There are some incredibly gifted writers included in this book. Quantedius Hall, Shysuaune Taylor, Todd VanDerWerff, Stephan Johnson, Timothy Arevalo - WOW! Read more
Published on June 21, 2001 by Eileen

5.0 out of 5 stars Go Betsy Franco!
I attended California State Summer School for the Arts this summer, and the editor of this book, Betsy Franco, came and spoke to us (the creative writing department--YEAH,... Read more
Published on August 7, 2000 by Iris Dart

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