In discussions about books for teenagers one area that often gets overlooked is nonfiction. While I certainly agree that a fifteen-year old is capable of enjoying a biography of Charles Darwin just as much as the adult audience for whom it is published for, I do think that teens have interests that are overlooked by publishers. A perfect example of this is Elisha Cooper's ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: A Year in an American High School. When I reviewed it earlier this year at Bookslut I compared it to a documentary in print form:

The book opens with Daniel Patton, senior class president, hard worker and determined to get into Harvard. From there readers enter the lives of Emily, star soccer player; Maya, drama class star; Diana, a budding swimmer who is overwhelmed by family stresses; Aisha, transfer student; Zef, the music lover who sleeps through class; Anthony, the player wannabe, and Anais, the dancer. Collectively they are a bundle of contradictions, confident one moment and filled with uncertainties the next. They reveal their hopes for the future and concerns for the moment and second guess everything they think and do. The interaction between author and subject is seamless; the reader feels more as if they are a fly on the wall at Walter Payton then reading what amount to research notes. Cooper is almost totally invisible in the text, merely someone observing the events at the school and relating the specific thoughts of the teens he has chosen to highlight.

This is not a book for adults to read and remember what it was like for them in high school; it is completely and totally written for teenagers today and Elisha's attention to detail and the serious, professional way he appreciates his subjects reveals how much respect he has for his readers. When considering nonfiction for teens, ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool should be considered the standard - it is a subject teens want, written in a manner they can relate to by an author who appreciates their distinctive characteristics as readers. This is a wonderful and valuable book and I hope it reaches a wide audience.
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I think since ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool is such an unusual title in teen publishing that we should start with the basics. I hate asking such a bland question but the idea of following around several high school seniors for a year is pretty out there in publishing...so where did you get your idea from and how did you initiate the process of pulling it together? In other words, it is one thing to wonder just how the average 17-18 year old thinks, but actually meeting several of them, peeking into their lives and recording what you learn is not something that can be easy to plan. Can you explain how this all happened?

After talking with Sam (who’s in the book), I was annoying as possible to the Payton administration: writing letters, dropping off other books of mine, calling the principal every day. Even with Sam’s help it was a process. There was a lot of “waiting to see what downtown has to say.� As the beginning of the school year approached, I got pretty nervous since I still didn’t have permission. Still, I started going to pre-season football practices, hanging around the school. I don’t think I got permission (signed forms from the kids), until later, end of September even, though at that point I’d sort of already showed up. Then I got my own Payton I.D. and I showed up even more.

You're very across the board with the students you shadowed - you've got boys and girls, multiple ethnicities and multiple interests (from jock to dancer to academic to slacker). Did any preplanning go into the kinds of kids you were looking for as far as getting a cross section of Walter Payton's student population?

I had lots of conversations with Sam and the Payton guidance counselor about which students would be good subjects. I wanted a cross-section. Diversity in background, interest, everything. They suggested kids. I suggested types. There was a back-and-forth (as they had to check with the students too).

So I started meeting the kids. In free periods, on benches in the atrium of the school. Some I connected with right away. Some were distant – interesting in its own way. Zef was immediately funny, a character. Maya was the kind of girl I knew readers would be attracted to. Anthony was hard to crack. Though, with any reporting I think if you put in the time, people will usually reveal themselves. This happens even if you’re sitting in a field. (I’m painting a children’s book about farms right now, so sitting in fields is on my mind. But, trust me, if you sit in a corn field long enough, things happen. Bugs become interesting). Anyway, back to high school. I hung around the atrium, in the cafeteria, in classes, listening to discussions about Huck Finn that went on forever. The kids’ lives started to spool out: upcoming dance, college application essay that was proving troublesome, worries about a twisted ankle. Then, the next time I met the student, maybe a week later, usually there was some new development.

I was really surprised by how honest the kids were and how much they revealed. Did you have to push them for information about their feelings or did they initiate most of these conversations. Did anything the kids told you surprise you? And how did their parents feel about this project?

The kids were open, and not. I mean, how well do we all know what we feel as we’re living it? Add being seventeen. Add sharing one’s life with a stranger who’s writing down what you say. So our talks were delicate. It took some probing. It’s not that the kids were dishonest. But their feelings really shifted from one week to the next. Not even shifted. Disappeared. I’d ask Anthony to tell me more about the story from last week and get the blankest stare. In other words, I wish the students revealed more.

The students’ parents. I just did a reading at the downtown Chicago Public Library. Two of the students’ mothers showed up. They seemed to like the book, which made me happy, but for the most part I have no clue if the rest of them do.

The biggest question I had when it finished was what the kids were going to think. They really trusted you an enormous amount - what kind of feedback have you gotten from them?

The book came out a few weeks ago. I’ve sent copies to the students, and heard from three of them so far. It’s been fascinating to hear their responses. Emily went out on the publication day and bought a copy, which says something about her. I ran into another of the students in Washington Square Park the other day and gave her a copy (I just gave away that one ends up at NYU!). This one said she was touched by it (at least that’s what she told me). I think they’re all sort of shocked to see themselves in print. Anais, the dancer, told me that she knows she can get anxious, but it was a bit hard to have this stated so publicly. But I think they appreciate the book. At least I hope so. They’re still getting back to me.

And finally, did you have any trouble not intervening in their lives - not suggesting they were making good or bad decisions or offering advice? I saw several moments where I wondered if you were able to pull back and let the kids make mistakes. Was that hard to do?

There’s this amazing William Finnegan New Yorker piece about a fifteen-year-old kid in New Haven who’s dealing drugs. A few times, Finnegan intervenes to help the kid. Finnegan is pretty artful about acknowledging that he’s breaking some “journalistic wall.� But how could he not? Nothing in my book ever approached that, but it was something I thought a lot about. Especially with Anthony’s ex-girlfriend’s pregnancy. When this happened, I went to Sam Dyson for advice. I talked a lot with my wife, who’s a psychology professor. The whole thing was even more complex because Anthony didn’t know if he was the father or not. I still don’t what I should have done, or even what I could have done.

I probably got more comfortable sharing my opinions with the kids over the course of the year. Even more so when the year was over when I met them during their first year of college, to write an afterward to the book. Diana told me she was considering leaving the University of Illinois (oops, just gave away another ending) and return to Chicago with her boyfriend. I told her she was nuts.

[Post pic of Walter Payton College Prep High School.]