Customer Reviews
Great! 
2007-07-13
Fridays are poetry days in my classroom. Every few weeks, I pull out this book, or Things I Have to Tell You, and read a poem or two. Time and again, boys will approach me after class and ask to borrow the book. These poems say to kids what Whitman, Frost (sorry--you know I love you, Robert) and Tennyson just can't. Kids must speak to kids. These books assure tentative nascent poets that they can do it, too, and they deliver a strong peer message to kids who are struggling. Betsy Franco has done a great thing here.
Honest 2007-03-03
This book is a genuine, heartfelt, and very honest portrait of teenagers in urban America. There are those, no doubt, who will be offended by its explicit language and subject matter. Nevertheless, explicit language is one of the hallmarks of teenagers grappling with issues of sexuality, drug use, disability, and a myriad of complex social relationships. This book will not expose teenagers to issues with which they are unfamiliar - despite its language, it will not taint innocent minds. Rather, it will model a healthy way (writing poetry) to grapple with the questions most teenagers face as they navigate the difficult path to adulthood.
Appalling 
2006-12-08
The facts about this book are clear from these excerpts from an article in the New York Daily News,Dec. 7, 2006:
"Sixth-graders at a Queens school were getting quite an education - in homosexuality, French kissing and cursing - thanks to three books widely available in classroom libraries. ... Several parents learned of the racy books after overhearing their kids snickering about the sexual themes.
The poem 'I Hate School' in a book called 'You Hear Me?' includes the rhyme, 'F--- this s---, up the a--. I don't think I'll ever pass.' Another poem compares eating an orange to having sex, while several passages repeatedly use vulgar slang for genitalia. Principal Carmen Parache said ... they were ''definitely inappropriate.' ... 'As soon as I saw them, I pulled them and they are no longer in the school'"
great-except for first entry... 
2005-03-04
"Time somebody told me" has been around a lot longer than the young man who submitted it - Otherwise, love the real, true feelings expressed!
Tender? Deep? Try Tolerance Run Amok 2004-04-11
{First of all, I rate this a 1-Star book. I mistakenly submitted my review with five stars and you can only edit the review - not the rating.}
(...) YOU HEAR ME: POEMS AND WRITINGS BY TEENAGE BOYS is a collection of teenage angst that will shock most any parent who reads this book. That may come as a surprise to those on the left who promote the acceptance of trash as "tolerance"... but "shocked" is probably being kind as many parents would be flat-out angry at finding their 7th-12th grader in possession of this book.
Let me be honest: This book cannot even be reviewed with the frankness I would like, in using words from the book itself, because Amazon would, rightfully, strike it for being obscene! The editorial reviews above give you a taste.
Teenage boys, for YEARS, have grown up learning right from wrong, but to those who praise this book I suppose that's an oppressive and old-fashioned concept. Books like this - and praise for them - say that it's okay (and right) to use vulgarity, promote pre-marital sex - and more - all in the name of "acceptance of young boys angst." Sorry, but some of us still believe you stand up for what is right and true and good and call trash what it deserves to be called - and what this book is - TRASH that belongs nowhere near a junior high library.
Poetry for the Teenage Boy! 2004-01-30
Teenage boys speak out—without the filter of adult sensibility—in a compelling collection of poetry and prose.In a powerful collection of more than seventy uncensored poems and essays, more than fifty teenage boys from across the country explore their many-layered concerns: identity, love, envy, gratitude, sex, anger, competition, fear, hope. Here, unadorned and without the filter of adult sensibility, is the raw stuff of their lives, in their own words. Isn’t it time to listen?
I don't normally read poetry, but this was fabulous 2001-06-22
There are some incredibly gifted writers included in this book. Quantedius Hall, Shysuaune Taylor, Todd VanDerWerff, Stephan Johnson, Timothy Arevalo - WOW! I hope they continue to write and publish their work, because many people have been touched by their words.
The Best I've Seen Yet 2000-08-29
I work with an online magazine with teenage writing as the primary content. When I got my hands on a copy of this book, I thought it was right up my alley, and it was. I never expected the quality and scope of the selections. Some of the poetry is so unbelievably striking--let's just say that this book is not just for teens. Readers of many ages will appreciate it. I really loved it, and I'm even considering reviewing it for my zine.
activism w/ heart and soul 2000-08-11
although i acted as a consultant for this book and thus had some familiarity with its contents before publication, i was pretty unprepared for how beautiful and effective the finished product was when it arrived in the mail. It's a jewel, from its restrained and lyrical cover photo to its soulful content --poems, stories and essays by teenage boys from around the country. My personal faves include Fred Brown's "The Bus Stop," a choppy, minimalist anecdote about a neighborhood domestic altercation with a knockout last line worthy of Hemingway or Raymond Carver; Rigo Landin's "Ode to My Hair Tail," in which a carefully-tended object of personal adornment becomes, in the final stanza, a spiritual offering; Kenny Weiss's "I Hate School," a brilliant all-out assault on verbal decorum and the social rules it helps to maintain; Seth Chappell's "Does My Mother Look Like This?", a wistfully speculative love-poem to THE most important missing person in the world; and countless others. This book is an activist intervention into all the current talk by "experts" *about* boys; it short-circuits all the static of debate by bringing boys' creativity and soulfulness to the fore and letting them speak for themselves. Already the book is being used in group-home workshops to inspire boys in serious need of speaking and being heard; I can't think of a better affirmation of its power than this, its use as a tool against despair and creative waste. Few books achieve such a perfect harmony of artistic and social value. This book is where it's at, and I'm happy to have had even a small role in its development. (If you think this review represents a conflict of interest, check out the book and judge for yourself!)
Go Betsy Franco! 2000-08-07
I attended California State Summer School for the Arts this summer, and the editor of this book, Betsy Franco, came and spoke to us (the creative writing department--YEAH, BABY!) as a guest artist. She talked to us about the world of writing and publishing, and showed us a copy of her newest endeavor, which was entitled "You Hear Me?" We were intrigued, especially when she had several of the students read aloud from it. The work is strikingly well-written, and I highly recommend this book for people of all ages.
