Parents often look at their teenagers and wonder: “What the heck is going on in that head?” The moping, the slouching, the copious amounts of black clothing – all can be attributed, for the most part, to something we adults seem to have forgotten: adolescents feel everything more strongly than we do. Every high is higher, every low is lower, and every love (or lack thereof) is greater than any to come.

Somehow, despite being a fully formed adult with three children of his own, award-winning poet JonArno Lawson has remembered – and captured, in a satisfyingly understated manner – that burden of feeling in almost every one of the four-line poems that comprise Think Again. “What I Want” sums up a common frustration of every teen (and many an adult) with such simplicity it’s almost startling: “I’ve objected and complained / But it hasn’t done any good – / I don’t want to be explained / I want to be understood.” Touching on themes such as self-discovery, love, depression, comfort, idealism, intelligence, and confusion, Lawson’s poems are like a better written collection of the mad scribblings of angsty teens everywhere.

The quatrains are perfectly paired with artwork by Vancouver illustrator and artist Julie Morstad. Known for her gothic, moody, and sometimes macabre ink drawings, the simple line-drawn boy and girl that figure throughout the book reflect, and sometimes influence (in the reader’s mind, at least), the tone of the accompanying poem. As with the verse, the art calls to mind back-of-the-class pen scratches on lined paper, made to be hidden rather than seen.

Lawson and Morstad have produced a volume that will resonate with its target audience, though one hopes the youngest members will have a few years to go before facing most of the emotions dealt with here. It is filled with witty, insightful, playful, and on-target poems. Think Again should be forced into the hands of every sensitive, soul-searching teen. They might even mumble a thank you for it.