The authors share a decade's worth of insights from working with over 3,000 at-risk youth in prisons, detention centers and alternative high schools. With great finesse and considerable levity to keep things in perspective, they lead us through poignant real-life stories that may curl your toes and tie them into knots to provide the reader with real-world guidance for today's troubled and out of control youth. Get ready for straight talk in this book of hope for parents, grandparents, teachers, school counselors, probation officers, correctional officers and all those who care for youth and are concerned for a generation of youth who just don't seem to listen as well as those who are headed for serious drug and alcohol addictions, early sex with all its risks including teen pregnancy, STDs or rape, and teens getting sucked into gangbanging, sexting, sextortion, or crime.