Park Ridge Community Church is dedicated to supporting parents and teens throughout adolescence. Below, we have provided a list of some helpful resources for learning about issues that teens face. The church owns several copies of the books listed and will continue to add to our library.

BOOKS: Fiction

Cut, by Patricia McCormick

Topics: Teenage self-mutilation

Synopsis: "While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better. "

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

Topics: Teenage drug use

Synopsis: "A fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her daily struggle to escape the pull of the drug world."

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Topics: Identity, cliques, rape

Synopsis: "When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide."

 

BOOKS: Non-Fiction

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, by Alissa Quart

Topics: Youth Marketing

Synopsis: "The current generation of American youth is the most heavily marketed to in history. Journalist Quart argues that this marketing reinforces teens' fears about social standing and makes them believe that "the only way to participate in the world is to turn oneself into a corporate product." Fortunately, she observes, teens also display remarkable abilities to subvert the corporate agenda, whether through everyday slang or through the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) ethic. She details both processes in a journalistic style. "

Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain, by Marilee Strong

Topics: Teenage self-mutilation

Synopsis: "...explores this hidden epidemic through case studies, startling new research, and the insights of self-mutilators themselves...an essential resource for victims, their families, teachers, doctors, and therapists."

Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids, by Barbara Strauch

Topics: Teenage behavior

Synopsis: "The first book to provide a scientific explanation of the mysterious, infuriating, and downright weird behavior of teenagers.

A mother paces the living room waiting for her sixteen-year-old son to come home hours past his curfew. When he finally saunters in, he answers every question with a blank stare, dashes to his room, and slams the door. The mother, stunned and angry, thinks "It's just hormones, right?"

Wrong. While raging hormones and an inclination toward rebellion are major players in the teenage drama, an area north of the gonads is directing the show: the brain. In The Primal Teen, Barbara Strauch examines the cutting-edge scientific discoveries that are providing vital new information about what makes teens tick."

The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do, by Lynn E. Ponton

Topics: Teenage risk-taking behavior

Synopsis: "In The Romance of Risk, Dr. Ponton refutes the traditional idea that risk-taking is primarily an angry power struggle with parents - so-called teenage rebellion - and redefines it as a potentially positive testing process whereby challenge and risk are the primary tools adolescents use to find out who they are and determine who they will become. This new perspective is revealed in a series of mesmerizing tales about individual adolescents and their families. Jill, a 13-year-old thrill-seeking runaway; Hannah, a privileged daughter of suburbia who suffers from anorexia; and Joe, a high school senior with a serious drinking problem. Through these stories, we come to understand Dr. Ponton's startling observation that teenagers must confront and experience challenge and risk along the path to self-discovery. In The Romance of Risk, parents will learn how they can begin to understand rather than fear adolescent risk-taking, and how to communicate with their children about it. After all, teenagers will always romanticize risk. But with the support and guidance of parents and other adults, odds are the risks they take will be the right ones. "

FILMS:

Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain (DVD)

Rating: NR

Topics: Teenage brain development

Synopsis: "It's the mystery of mysteries -- especially to parents. Now the experts are exploring the recesses of the brain and finding explanations for why adolescents behave the way they do and how the new discoveries can change the way we teach, or perhaps even understand, our teenagers."

click here to watch online

Frontline: The Merchants of Cool (DVD)

Rating: NR

Topics: Teenage marketing

Synopsis: "Today's teenagers have money and independence, their lives the object of obsessive focus by corporate America. FRONTLINE explores the culture of today's teenagers and how they view themselves and their parents. Teenage tastes, attitudes, and aspirations are endlessly sampled by marketers to determine exactly what they want, while Hollywood and Madison Avenue tell a carefully tailored version of teenage life in movies, TV, music and advertising."

Click here to watch online

Speak

Rating: PG-13

Topics: see book review above

Synopsis: see book review above

Thirteen

Rating: R (see note)

Topics: need for communication, drugs, sex, peer pressure

Synopsis: "Los Angeles teenager and overachiever Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is an excellent student in her seventh grade class and gets along well with her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter). She fears that she's not cool enough to be friends with Evie (Nikki Reed), the most popular girl in school. Fueled with genuine adolescent energy, Tracy follows Evie's lead into the harsh realities of sex, drugs, and hard-edged adventure. Consumed with temptations and conflicting desires, Tracy loses her good-girl identity, greatly affecting her relationship with her mom. Partly autobiographical, Thirteen was co-written by Hardwicke and actual 13-year-old Reed, who are close family friends. "

Note: There are many aspects of this film that are extremely disturbing: language, drug-use, and sexualization of teenagers. It is not for the faint of heart. However, the film is based on a true story and has an extremelty important and powerful message for parents and youth.