In The Romance of Risk, Dr. Ponton refutes the traditional idea that risk-taking is primarily an angry power struggle with parents - so-called teenage rebellion - and redefines it as a potentially positive testing process whereby challenge and risk are the primary tools adolescents use to find out who they are and determine who they will become.

This new perspective is revealed in a series of mesmerizing tales about individual adolescents and their families. Jill, a 13-year-old thrill-seeking runaway; Hannah, a privileged daughter of suburbia who suffers from anorexia; and Joe, a high school senior with a serious drinking problem. Through these stories, we come to understand Dr. Ponton's startling observation that teenagers must confront and experience challenge and risk along the path to self-discovery.

In The Romance of Risk, parents will learn how they can begin to understand rather than fear adolescent risk-taking, and how to communicate with their children about it. After all, teenagers will always romanticize risk. But with the support and guidance of parents and other adults, odds are the risks they take will be the right ones.