A girl is horribly injured when she walks through a glass door to get her parents' attention. A teen repeatedly tries to lose her virginity--and ends up a young mother in a failing marriage. A boy tries to understand the meaning of a slang term and becomes involved in some very strange discussions about sex.... Topics that encompass a broad range of experience--mental illness, teen sexuality, sex education, interracial adoption, and governmental repression--are all fair game in John Neufeld's books for young adults. In large part, Neufeld makes these themes accessible to his readers by placing well-drawn, often terribly misunderstood, youthful protagonists at the center of the action. In an essay for the Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS), the author explained some of his inspiration: "The things that interest me are ideas and problems that face us all, but which we often first meet when we're...