Adolescence is a developmental period of accelerating physical, psychological, social cultural, and cognitive development, often characterized by confronting and surmounting a myriad of challenges and establishing a sense of self-identity and autonomy. It is also, unfortunately, a period fraught with many threats to the health and well-being of adoles cents and with substantial consequent impairment and disability. Many of the adverse health consequences experienced by adolescents are, to a large extent, the result of their risk behaviors. Many adolescents today, and perhaps an increasing number in the future, are at risk for death, disease, and other adverse health outcomes that are not primarily biomedical in origin. In general, there has been a marked change in the causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Previously, infectious diseases accounted for a dispro portionate share of adolescent morbidity and mortality. At present, however, the over whelming toll of adolescent morbidity and mortality is the result of lifestyle practices."

Adolescence is a developmental period of accelerating physical, psychological, social cultural, and cognitive development, often characterized by confronting and surmounting a myriad of challenges and establishing a sense of self-identity and autonomy. It is also, unfortunately, a period fraught with many threats to the health and well-being of adoles cents and with substantial consequent impairment and disability. Many of the adverse health consequences experienced by adolescents are, to a large extent, the result of their risk behaviors. Many adolescents today, and perhaps an increasing number in the future, are at risk for death, disease, and other adverse health outcomes that are not primarily biomedical in origin. In general, there has been a marked change in the causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Previously, infectious diseases accounted for a dispro portionate share of adolescent morbidity and mortality. At present, however, the over whelming toll of adolescent morbidity and mortality is the result of lifestyle practices."

The Metis are the descendants of Cree and Assiniboine women who joined with French and Scottish men to raise children and shape a hybrid culture in the heart of Canada. In "Metis, Mixed Blood Stories," four generations of adolescents come of age during their sixteenth year. Together their voices tell the story of one family and of a people. Matriarch Angeline describes her ride on the last great buffalo hunt of the 1860s and her relationship with charismatic Metis leader Louie Riel. Her grandson, Gilles, relates his escape from a Chicago orphanage and his fight to stay out of reservation school. Gilles's daughter, Elisabeth, fights to protect the rights of native youth in the violent 1968 U.S. Democratic Convention. The novel closes with the vibrant voice with which it begins, that of great-granddaughter Annie, whose creativity as a young author and filmmaker will ensure that the legacy of their culture lives on. Lynn Ponton is the author of two previous books of nonfiction, "The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do" and "The Sex Lives of Teenagers: Revealing the Secret World of Adolescent Boys and Girls." She has been a columnist for Salon.com and has published widely in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. A practicing psychoanalyst, she is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. This is her first work of fiction.