Ashley, age 6, writes, "I believe in God because He gave me my dog and He helps us with math."

A 10-year-old girl writes, "I wish my dads would get lost because they both beat on me and my mom, sister, and brother. I don't want anything to do with them. I don't ever want to see them ever again."

More than 10,000 letters like these are sent to author Misti Snow monthly. She publishes some of the letters in a monthly column called MindWorks, which runs in the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Snow has compiled many of the essays received from 1983 to 1991 in a book called Take Time To Play Checkers.

She wrote the book to show adults what is happening to kids today.

Impatient with adults

"I think adults really need to hear these things because adults have the power to change things, and adults need to look in the mirror and see what they're doing to their own children and other children," Snow said in a recent phone interview from her Minneapolis home.

She says she gets very impatient with adults.

"They sometimes don't seem to understand at all what kids have going on inside of them," she explained.

"Moms take time to play checkers" is the only response a 6-year-old boy gave to the question, "What advice would you give to your mother or stepmother about being a better parent?"

The title, according to Snow, "really sums up what kids are saying and what I see all the time in my first book, and that's kids saying to adults, `Take time. Take time to listen to us. Take time to hug us, to kiss us, to say I love you. Take time to think about what kind of parent you are, and take time to understand what it is we're going through.' "

Snow's task was unlike most authors' when writing a book. She didn't have to worry so much about choosing her own words; instead, she had to select letters that would represent all of the different feelings of kids.

Snow explained: "I try very hard to represent the spectrum of where kids are. I try to present the picture of children as being complex, because that's one thing about kids that we forget. Society likes to treat kids very simply, and we need to remember that children's lives are rich, and children's lives can be complicated."

Diversity of voices

Snow's book depicts school-age kids of all races and backgrounds. There are passages from 7-year-olds on child abuse and some from 19-year-olds on childhood memories. This wide range, according to Snow, shows the changes that take place in kids as they grow up, and it shows the unique perspectives that kids of all ages have on issues.

Snow says her book will help adults to see kids as "real." She writes in the introduction: "The kids' writing is real. So frequently in this society we view children in two ways - as entertainment (the kids-say-the-darnedest things approach) or problems (gangs, sexually active teen-agers, and educational failures).

"The children reveal themselves as multidimensional human beings. Their writing isn't glitzy, there's no `spin' on it, it's not generic. It's real writing by the kid next door, the CEO's daughter, or the factory worker's son, the youngsters we see hanging out at the mall, serving us our burgers, or skipping down the sidewalk."

Snow has confidence that adults and children benefit from reading children's writing.

"I know that through MindWorks, adults have a much better sense of what goes on in kids' lives in this community (Minneapolis). I know that they're thinking differently about children's issues.

"I know that every time MindWorks comes out, something changes. There is a conversation that happens that wouldn't have happened before. I know families have changed because of something they've read from some other child. I think it's had an enormously powerful effect on our community, on people who read it," she explained.

"Kids can teach us"

When Snow started the column, she never really paid attention to children.

"I was always busy with other stuff. And then I started the column and I had my own child, and those two things are real important change times for people. It just dawned on me how much I had been missing, and how much most people are missing because these kids can teach us so much about what it means to live.

"One of the most common reactions I get is adults coming up to me and saying, `I had no idea that kids felt that strongly about things,' or, `I had no idea that kids thought about things like that,' or, `I had no idea that kids could express themselves that well.'

"And on my bad days, I just want to grab them by the lapels and look them in the eye and say, `Why didn't you know?' Kids are trying to tell us these things all the time.

"But then I have to remember that I've had this very privileged position for 10 years where I have been absolutely immersed in children's voices, and sometimes adults don't know because they're tired or they're not paying attention or they're not asking the right questions."

Although Snow wrote the book with educating adults in mind, she says it can educate children, too. When kids read their peers' writing, it can help them feel better about themselves.

"When children read the book . . . they learn that they aren't weird. They figure out that there is a community of children out there, most of whom are dealing with the same problems. . . . But they can read the book and discover that all people have all different kinds of feelings, and they won't feel quite so alone."

EDITED BY: Amy Weisenbach, 17, and Katherine Hill, 16