This publication serves as a companion volume to the 1994 KIDS COUNT Data Book. The two books represent different ways of portraying the status and prospects of children in the United States today. While the Data Book profiles quantitative measures of children's lives, this volume features interviews of kids from across the country who describe their worlds in vivid terms. The book was assembled to capture some of the individual stories behind the numbers in the Data Book and to convey some special human insights arising from candid conversations among kids themselves. The roughly 40 interviews here, conducted by children and adolescents, are grouped into three sections: (1) Hard Times/High Hopes; (2) Dropping Out/Hanging On; and (3) Mother-Daughter/Father-Son. It is hoped that the most troubled and troubling of the voices recorded here will deepen public understanding of the desperate conditions confronting too many of America's disadvantaged children. (RJM)