From the Preface:

Quakerism is not just a faith but a way of being in the world. A central tenet of Quakerism is the importance of having our lives be an expression of our testimonies. This collection of stories is about Friends whose lives have spoken their faith loudly and clearly.

In preparing these stories, we wanted to affirm the message of the title—that our lives—our choices and our interactions in the world—tell who we really are. We also thought it was important for Quaker children to see Quakerism as something that is happening now, not just something that happened in the time of George Fox or William Penn. In our own times, there are many Quakers who lives are speaking in a wide variety of resourceful ways. We have chosen sixteen men and women to highlight. We hope these stories will help children consider ways their own lives can speak...

Our format is a story book with a few questions and suggested activities for teachers and parents to sue in helping children identify with the people in the stories and think more deeply about how they were meeting the challenges in their lives. The stories are written for upper elementary children, roughly fourth to eighth grade. Many of the activities call for searches by computer or in the library to broaden the information in the stories.

These stories show how sixteen Friends—eight women and eight men—have responded to problems and challenges of our time with courage and creativity and caring. Many of the stories describe experiences and contacts in childhood that led to the person's adult direction and commitment. To round out the picture, we have also included short accounts of the four Nobel Prize awards to Quakers. We being with encouragement to look for people in their own meetings whose "lives speak."