A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence (Ballantine Readers Circle) by Patricia Hersch

A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence (Ballantine Readers Circle) Reviews

• 
  Allie Coposky

  Had to read this for my Psychology of Adolescence course. I felt as though it was pretty interesting, though nothing shook me as revelation. We have all been an adolescent so we know what it was/is like. This book may be important to read for the older generations who may have forgotten the day to day feelings of being an adolescent, but for those of us who have recently emerged from adolescence, it's more of a hearkening back to the days we wish to forget and are glad we moved past.
• 
  Anne

  I bought this book because I am a medical student considering adolescent medicine as a specialty. I found the stories of the kids in to book intriguing, and the analysis concerning how adults can better understand and relate to teens enlightening. The author's conclusion that adolescents are a tribe apart not of their own choosing, but because parents, teachers and other adults don't form a strong social network for teens cuts to the heart of many of the problems adolescents face today. Being an adolescent is never easy, and I agree that young people deserve our support and admiration, not only our suspicion and condemnation.
• 
  Emil

  I am not going to give away any spoilers, but I strongly suggest every adult with younger children read this book.
  
  One idea that I want to iterate is this: Your kids are listening to you, but they do want to figure things out for themselves. They will behave in ways that seem contradictory to your norms. Don't let that get to you.
  
  I recommend this book.
• 
  Andrea

  A book written about kids from my high school! How could I not read it?!
  
  This book is a study on adolescents from Reston and how their stories relate to adolescents across the United States. I loved this book for many reasons. First, because its my home town. I know the places she talks about and even had many of the teachers mentioned, so that's totally exciting. Second, because she is a journalist and I aspire to be one. And the third reason goes along with the second. With each detail that she wrote, the journalist in me loves her writing style. Lastly, I love reading about non-fiction books about people lives. So if you like non-fiction/study kind of books, I highly recommend it. If not, this is not the book for you.
• 
  Jeff

  Read this for a book club years ago and found it fascinating. The author spent a long time with her subjects, following many of them through their whole high school careers. She gained their trust and really put effort into remaining an observer rather than becoming part of the story herself. I read it when I was about 15 years out of high school and it was interesting the similarities and differences with my high school experience. You really felt the impact of two-career families and divorce more strongly than I remember it being in my high school years. I did not have kids at the time, which might change how I would feel about it now.
• 
  Farrah

  This book started out as nothing more than assigned reading, but it ended up being so much more. The author does an amazing job of infiltrating the world of adolescents. Each person that she follows has their own great story that highlights all of the torments of junior high and high school. Teen pregnancy, suicide, racism, poor parenting, promiscuity, drug use, star athletes, the Homecoming parade: no topic is off limits or too trivial in these kids' lives. No matter who you were in high school, you will find at least one kid in this book that you swear you knew, or you were.
• 
  CM

  I don't really know what to say about this book, other than that it was not what I expected. I thought that the author did a relatively poor job of finding "normal" kids, since most of the children she interviewed were living pretty drugged up lives. I think that this book illustrated that many parents in the world today are bad parents an that their children are trying to do the best they can in their lives in spite of their parents, and doing so by doing things they shouldn't.
• 
  Becky

  At times heart-wrenching and upsetting, it is an important book for parents and others who are involved in the lives of young people. I am thankful that my own children navigated their adolescent years with the loving hearts of teachers and coaches at their Christian schools and an extended family who was always engaged in their lives.
• 
  Gerry Durisin

  It took quite a while to finish, but was well worth the effort. Hersch presents the lives of eight supposedly “typical” adolescents -- each one so different from all the others -- and ends with a plea for adults to rejoin the world of children and adolescents, to connect with this “Tribe Apart” -- one at a time, and bring them back into society.
• 
  Ben

  Want to become incredibly frightened about the world we have created for our young people? Read this book. A damming critique of our American baby boomer-centric culture and the children who have been neglected, if not forgotten, by it.
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  jenna

  Boooring. What annoys me about this book, or at least the 2 chapters I read, is that people read this to know what this foreign "tribe" of adolescence is. WHY DON'T YOU JUST LISTEN TO TEENAGERS! So the book just comes off like some "otherizing" ethnography. Too annoyed to complete.
• 
  Peter Krol

  Quite a troubling study of the lives of teenagers in our generation. Troubling in that they simply aren't getting what they're looking for: people who care about them. It really encouraged me to be actively involved in my kids' (and others) lives as they grow.
• 
  j.elaine

  Study of the social structure or "tribes" found in the youth of today. Well done study which follows a group of students from different groups like goth, skater, jocks, etc. through middle school and the societal pressures they were coping with. Excellent book for parents and teachers to read.
• 
  Danielle

  Interesting. This book really grew on me. At first I didn't like it and almost stopped reading it.
• 
  Momm

  Every parent and teacher should read this book.
• 
  Mary C. Brown

  Why do teenagers so often seem like a different species?
• 
  John Hoag

  A peek into the suburbia of middle-class teens -- at that time.
• 
  Carrie

  sociology
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  Paula S

  I read this before my kids were all fully engaged in adolescence and I found it fascinating. It's a view in to their world.
• 
  Daniel Brockhan

  Even though this book is now 20 years old. Still a great and interesting read!