MY STORY STARTS HERE

In MY STORY STARTS HERE: VOICES OF YOUNG OFFENDERS, Deborah Ellis, author of the award-winning book turned Oscar-nominated movie The Breadwinner, interviews young people involved in the criminal justice system and lets them tell their own stories.

Jamar. Jeremy. Kate. The kids in this book represent a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations and ethnicities. Every story is different, but there are common threads - loss of parenting, dislocation, poverty, truancy, addiction, discrimination.

Many readers will recognize themselves, or someone they know, somewhere in these stories. Being lucky or unlucky after an incident of shoplifting, or the drug search at school, or hanging out with the wrong kids at the wrong time.

Ultimately, this book forces us to ask ourselves difficult and pressing questions. Does it make sense to put kids in jail? Can't we do better? Have we forgotten that we were once teens ourselves, feeling powerless to change our lives, confused about who we were and what we wanted, and quick to make a dumb move without a thought for the consequences?

There are 8 black and white illustrations and 30 photographs. The edition contains boxed features with content and background on the Youth Criminal Justice Act (of Canada), as well as on foster care, mental health issues, homelessness, gangs, solitary confinement and restorative justice.