<p>"Your Story Is Your Strength." This is the mantra that emerged from a six-month writing project at Ballou High School in Washington, DC, in which eleven dedicated freshmen and six determined seniors told their stories of ambition and struggle in what came to be known as The Ballou Story Project. The freshmen were students in AVID, a college-preparedness program, who gathered voluntarily every week at lunch-time to write and revise short personal stories about their lives. The seniors were some of Ballou's esteemed student leaders who were crafting their college essays and wanted to share their stories with other aspiring change-makers. Together their poignant, powerful voices come together to tell a collective story of How To Grow Up Like Me, a kind of instruction manual for determination, grit, and daily acts of hope and courage. This collection of memoirs does not shrink from hard truths. Authors write honestly about violence and loss, illness and pain, anger, defeat, broken promises, and longing. But they also write about love, and faith, and mentorship, and joy. Theirs are stories not of bitterness or blame, but of overcoming, of a daily and determined belief in oneself and in one's possibility. Readers will leave this collection humbled and moved, and if you recognize yourself in these stories, we hope you will leave inspired. Shout Mouse Press, in collaboration with the ShootBack Project, was honored to help these courageous young people tell their stories through their own words and photographs. Learn more at ShoutMousePress.org.</p>

How To Grow Up Like Me: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)

Biographies & Memoirs

Writers, Ballou High School

Community & Culture

Shout Mouse Press, Inc.

<p>Through the course of a historic year of civil unrest and the emergence of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, thirty teen writers from Frank W. Ballou High School in Washington, DC came together to take part in this national conversation about race, inequality, violence, and justice. Through their powerful, personal stories these writers intend to Change the Narrative about youth of color. We are not thugs, they say. We are not victims. We are big sisters and sports stars, academic strivers and everyday heroes. We speak out for justice. We dream big dreams. These writers want more for themselves, more for their community, more for their generation. And they are challenging their readers to listen, and to recognize in each story a common humanity worthy of dignity, support, and respect. This riot of voices must be heard.</p>

Our Lives Matter: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)

“Come to my side of town.”  The students of Ballou High School know a different Washington, DC than do the more than 18 million tourists who visit our nation’s capital each year. They live in Southeast DC, across the Anacostia River, and the tour buses don’t go through their neighborhoods. Some travel guides explicitly call the communities East of the River “areas to avoid.” Even some residents of the District don’t often visit Wards 7 and 8, as the river acts as not only a literal boundary, but a metaphorical one. The bridge that should connect these two Washingtons is all too rarely crossed.   The statistics about poverty or crime or violence in this community tell such a limited story, and it’s not the only story to tell. Those statistics should not build a wall that hides the humanity on the other side. Young people grow up in these neighborhoods, often too quickly, facing adult challenges too young. But they also grow up as all young people do: with joy. With talent. With pride. With love for their families, both biological and chosen. With style and humor and ambition and charm. For them, Southeast DC, and their own Ballou High School, is more than the headlines that others write -- it is home. And for the educators who work with these young people every day, they know that the stories we tell--and hear--about ourselves make all the difference.           This is why we write. These are the stories not on the tour. As one student put it, “[Come] to my side of town and... see what’s monuments to me.” Meet these Humans of Ballou, both student and educator, who speak up not only for their school and their neighborhood, but for the many communities across the country who need to be seen and heard, on their own terms.        Humans of Ballou is the third volume of The Ballou Story Project, a program that provides a platform for these students to tell their own stories and act as leaders in their community.   Learn more about The Ballou Story Project and other books authored by unheard voices at www.shoutmousepress.org .

Humans of Ballou: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Writers, Ballou High School. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Writers, Ballou High School

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Writers, Ballou High School. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How To Grow Up Like Me: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)

Our Lives Matter: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)

Humans of Ballou: The Ballou Story Project (Shout Mouse Press Young Adult Books)