"Meredith Maran is a wonderful, gifted, fearless writer, and she makes us fall in love with the teenagers she writes about."
-- Ann Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies

"Today there are 900,000 African-American youth in jail, and only 600,000 in college. Disparate treatment and prosecution for drug offesnses is a major way in which youth of color, especially, are funneled into the criminal justice system. Dirty provides critical firsthand information from inside this epidemic of injustice--and insightful ideas about what must be done to end it."
-- Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, president and founder of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

"Meredith Maran shares her hard-won knowledge as a journalist of the devastation of the drug war, and then goes further still to tell her story as a searching Mom. Hearing about these counselors and mothers and fathers and kids left me enraged and hopeful. Dirty's news is as necessary as it is devastating, all the while staying close to the complicated heart."
-- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

"Dirty takes us on a level-headed, no-holds-barred tour of the netherworld of teenage life. Meredith Maran's heart-wrenching, eye-opening search yields sensible answers every parent should ponder."
-- Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

"Dirty is an accurate and realistic portrayal of teenage drug use. What kids do, how they do it, why they do it. Parents should read this book. Kids should read this book."
-- James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces