Normal teenage exploration and risk-taking, such as sneaking out to parties and flirtations with boys, feel different when you live and go to school behind locked gates and kidnapping is a real risk. After stealing a peek at a letter home to her parents from her older sister, who is attending college in the States, the pieces begin to fall into place. By the time she reaches high school in an unspecified Central American nation-the sixth country she’s lived in-she’s begun to feel the weight of isolation and secrecy. citizen Glock shares the remarkable story of a childhood spent moving from country to country abiding by strange, secretive rules and the mystery of her parents’ occupations. Navigating high school is hard enough, let alone when your parents are CIA spies. A purely additional purchase for libraries looking to expand their teen self-help section.

While this is an adequate gateway title for identity-seeking teens in search of comfort or guidance, its broad focus and scant list of additional resources (made up of hotlines, books and websites) mean it will be of limited use for homework or projects. Each hand-lettered story is illustrated in spiky pen and broad pastel strokes by Mitchell and accompanied by a Q&A section in which each author further describes the positive or negative effect the event had on their lives. The experiences run the gamut from kidnapping (“Drive”) and family violence (“Punch”) to body image (“Big Girl”) and sexual identity (“Playing House”). A collection of illustrated vignettes about “…the ways we accept and define ourselves throughout our lives, and how, for better or worse, they shape who we become.” Scowen, a long-time youth counselor and consultant, solicited and selected 12 true first-person accounts of defining moments from childhood or adolescence.

I.D. by Kate Scowen