Steph McCarthy’s account of her experiences, as a relatively naïve 17 year old Australian Rotary Exchange student in the Philippines, is extraordinarily gripping!

As she develops friendships with Philippine Rotary host families and other students, she also finds herself navigating edgy political circumstances as she embarks on various other interesting opportunities she’s been invited to explore.

There are times one wonders how she ever managed to survive, let alone thrive.

Then as the title of her book, “The Tyrant and the Teen” hints, her encounters with the tyrannical President Ferdinand Marcos are chillingly full of dread.

Luckily she lived to tell the tail in this extraordinary book which I found hard to put down until I’d turned the last page.

Mike Piper
Piper Films Australia

As someone also in their late teens in 1968, I can identify with the enthusiasm experienced by the author as she embraced an opportunity to be part of a new community and explore another culture. But most of all, it is the perilous situation she found herself in, which can happen with the openness of youth before caution overtakes impulse.
McCarthy’s detailed account of her time spent in the Philippines surrounding the encounter with Marcos only serves to increase the intensity of the encounter itself and her strength in dealing with it.
The epilogue makes for a profound and heartfelt conclusion to this amazing story.

Reading The Tyrant and the Teen, left me a bit breathless. This engaging story of adventure reveals the amazing opportunity that travel presents. It also demonstrates the extraordinary generosity of the Rotary Club to offer life-changing experiences to the fortunate young people from Australia and other countries who participate in the amazing Rotary Exchange Program. There were unique opportunities such as being exposed to cultural and religious differences, volunteering with a community service that was working to combat malaria and being immersed in the depth of feeling, care and concern from host families. This account will also arouse interest in finding out more about the politics, history and culture of the Philippines.

What an amazing story kept reading to see what was comming from a remarkable gutsy Aussie teen so well written it felt like i was there xx

Part memoir, part political drama "The Tyrant and the Teen" tells a reflective story. It keeps you interested as a teenager navigates a different country's society, risks and an extraordinary encounter.