About this item
A veteran journalist navigates the mother-daughter relationship at its most crucial moment With the eye of a reporter, the curiosity of an anthropologist, and the open (and sometimes wounded) heart of a mother, award-winning author Lauren Kessler embeds herself in her about-to-be-teenage daughter's life. In seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms, at home, online, at the mall, and at summer camp, Kessler observes, investigates, chronicles- and participates in-the life of a twenty-first-century teen. As she begins to better understand and appreciate her mercurial daughter, their relationship-at first a mirror of the author's difficult relationship with her own mother-lurches in new directions. With the help of a resident teen expert (her daughter), as well as teachers, doctors, therapists, and other mothers, Kessler illuminates the age-old struggle from both sides, gracefully interweaving personal experience with journalistic inquiry.
About the Author
Lauren Kessler (www.laurenkessler.com) is an award-winning author, (semi) fearless immersion reporter and narrative nonfiction writer who combines lively storytelling with deep research to explore everything from the hidden world of a maximum security prison (A Grip of Time: When prison is your life) to the seemingly romantic but oh-go-gritty world of ballet (Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts and My Midlife Quest to Dance The Nutcracker) to the surprisingly vibrant world of those with Alzheimer's (Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's) . She has dived into the wild, wild west of the anti-aging movement (Counterclockwise: My Year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Chocolate and Other Adventures in the World of Antiaging) and weathered the stormy seas of the mother-daughter relationship (My Teenage Werewolf) . Her books have been Washington Post and Los Angeles Times bestsellers, Wall Street Journal "best" selections, Pacific Northwest Book Award winners, and Oregon Book Award winners. She is a national speaker and workshop leader who has twice been a guest on the late/great David Letterman Show. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, O magazine, Ladies Home Journal, Prevention, Woman's Day, Utne Reader, The Nation, newsweek.com, and salon.com. She is a Pacific Northwesterner (by choice not birth) , a blogger, a back-country hiker, a long distance bike rider and -- as her long-suffering family knows well -- a quadruple Aries.
