Overview

Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of Shayla, Jessica, Amy, Colleen, Liz, and Sheri--six teen mothers whom Joanna Lipper first met in 1999 when they were enrolled at the Teen Parent Program in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Less than a decade older than these teen parents, she was able to blend into the fabric of their lives and make a short documentary film about them. Over the course of the next four years she continued to earn their trust as they shared with her the daily reality of their lives and their experiences growing up in the economically depressed post-industrial landscape of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

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9780312422233

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In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating.... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers.--Martin Peretz The New Republic Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book...The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they know what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path.--Katherine S. Newman Washington Post In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating.... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers. --Martin Peretz, The New Republic Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book...The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they know what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path. --Katherine S. Newman, Washington Post In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating.... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers. Martin Peretz, The New Republic Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book...The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they know what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path. Katherine S. Newman, Washington Post In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating.... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers. --Martin Peretz, The New Republic Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book...The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they know what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path. --Katherine S. Newman, Washington Post

In nearly 400 fast-paced pages of wonderfully evocative prose, much of it in the words of her six subjects, all teen mothers, Lipper has actually conveyed the social and personal history of a growing class of Americans for whom there is little help and less hope. But this class of people has inner lives, and this is what Lipper is so deft at communicating.... Give this book for Christmas. It will burden the conscience of its readers. <br>--Martin Peretz, The New Republic <br> Readers looking for a slice of life in deindustrializing America will find much to admire about this book...The book should be mandatory reading in middle school, for as the young mothers themselves explain, had they know what they were getting into, they never would have walked this path. <br>--Katherine S. Newman, Washington Post <br>

Author Information

JOANNA LIPPER lives in New York City, where she runs Ruby Slipper Productions. She had made two documentary films, Inside Out: Portraits of Children and Growing Up Fast. Growing Up Fast is her first book.

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