cool : a year in an american high school

Many years ago, a friend of mine was dating a very worldly European woman. I found her fascinating and loved to hear her perspective on American life. One observation that she made sticks with me today, especially as I enter a room filled with people. She observed how self-conscious American women are…that instead of just being, we were concerned with what others thought of our being. She noted that our posture gave us away with its self-awareness.

As I read through ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: a year in an american high school, this memory came floating back to me. Elisha Cooper's book chronicles the lives of eight teenagers over the course of one year of high school. I live high school each and every day, over and over again. This time around I have a bit more say it what goes on and, more importantly, I'm very comfortable with who I am. I can't say the same for my high school days.

I loved Cooper's book for it's simplicity with such complex characters. Teenagers, by their very nature, are complex beings-stuck between childhood and adulthood, desiring to be independent, yet secretly terrified of letting go. Cooper shows his reader this not by his words, but by these eight teens' words, and more importantly, their actions. We see in these characters what teens truly are-funny, uncomfortable, passionate, hopeful, driven. In these pages, we see not the stereotypical image of teens, but who they truly are. How, for the most part, they want to be defined.

Even for me, a high school English teacher, I was startled by their drive, passion, and honesty. We enter their lives, see what moves them (college, an iPod, a better future), and see that they all, in some way, want to change the world. These optimistic look at teens is refreshing.

I found myself laughing out loud at a character who said one thing, but his action's clearly showed the truth. I shook my head at the personal lives of some of the characters who struggled, yet persevered to move beyond their present. And each and every character in this book had a name from my teaching career. We may meet Daniel, and Zef, and Emily, and Maya, and Anais, and Anthony and Aisha, and Diana in Cooper's book, but they represent Sally, and Mike, and Kristina and Jeff. In their uniqueness, they are one.

Consider adding this book to your Christmas list for your own favorite teen, or parent of a teen, or high school teacher. You can check out Elisha's Cooper's website for more info on the author and a link to purchase the book.