In much the same vein as Gaskins's What Are You? Voices of Mixed-Race Young People
, this volume gathers interviews with 95 Chicago-area young adults about the role of religion in their lives. "Not a primer on the beliefs and practices of these religions," explains the author in an introduction, "[the book] conveys the understanding people have of their own faith and others' faiths—not necessarily what religious authorities promulgate." This can be a dicey proposition. It may be easy to recognize the biases when a Christian girl, paraphrasing John Ashcroft, says that "the Christian God sent his son to die for the world and the Muslim God sent Muslim people to die for their own sins," but what will readers make of the Ahmadi Muslim youth who explains that his sect is condemned by other Muslims "because we don't believe that Jesus is going to physically descend from heaven"? In most cases, however, the passions of the speakers will likely kindle readers' own spiritual quests. Gaskins edits herself out of the interviews, so that the youths here appear to talk entirely of their own volition, and she places the narratives in a sequence that flows like an energetic discussion. Teens will value the insider perspectives of Muslim girls who wear hijab, conservative Christians who feel tempted by the "sexual implications" of pop music, atheists who reject their parents' faiths, and others representing the colorful spectrum of American religious life. Ages 14-up. (June)
