The Girls' Guide to AD/HD by Beth Walker
"How come girls guides to everything are always stupid and contrived?" ~ My 15 year old daughter.
If you are Beth Walker, you may want to skip by this review. It is not going to be kind. In fact, judging by the glowing reviews for your book over at Amazon.com this review may come as a surprise.
I felt this book assaulted my attention span with a sledgehammer covered with sparkles. I had a hard time thumbing through it, nevermind reading it. However, I gave it the old college try several times and each time failed miserably to get through a complete chapter. I tried skipping about to see if the book improved but experienced the same results.
At first, I cursed my Attention Deficit Disorder. That must be the culprit. It's only a book. I like books. Surely, I can read this one. Soon, however, I realized it was not my anemic attention span at fault.
The author wrote in a colloquial style which was easy to read, but finding that prose was the hard part. She interrupted the prose whenever it was in danger of becoming too informative with fabricated comments from gossipy and chatty girls. As if that weren't distracting enough, there were fly trails, doodles, and twee wittle dot trails all over the text, interspersed with non-threatening headers like "Physician-Prescribed Brain Help: Medicine" using a font loaded with swirls and curlies.
"Ah hah!" you exclaim. "You just didn't like the book because you're a guy!" Yes, I thought the same, so I subjected my wife and daughter to the book. Neither of them has AD/HD so I was curious what they'd make of it.
My wife said the book was too difficult to read. It didn't keep her attention. My daughter ranted and raved in the kitchen for several minutes because she felt the book talked down to her and insulted her intelligence. If she only added pacing to her ranting she'd be a carbon copy of myself. Thank Heaven she did not.
This leads me to my ultimate, concise review for the book:
Why you should read this book: You want to experience first hand what it is like to have AD/HD.
If you actually enjoy complex subjects being cutesified, you might enjoy this book, especially if you find most books on AD/HD far too dry and you are looking for a light, even kitschy, overview of the subject.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You have a low threshold for "Girl Power" themed books and don't enjoy complex subjects being dumbed down.
If you don't enjoy being talked down to and you like your information given to you without distractions, then this book's design and narrative voice will cause you to sweat, and your brain will desperately try to distract you away from the book in an attempt to save itself.
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If you are Beth Walker, you may want to skip by this review. It is not going to be kind. In fact, judging by the glowing reviews for your book over at Amazon.com this review may come as a surprise. I felt this book assaulted my attention span with a sledgehammer covered with sparkles. I had a hard time thumbing through it, nevermind reading it. However, I gave it the old college try several times and each time failed miserably to get through a complete chapter. I tried skipping about to see if the book improved but experienced the same results.
At first, I cursed my Attention Deficit Disorder. That must be the culprit. It's only a book. I like books. Surely, I can read this one. Soon, however, I realized it was not my anemic attention span at fault.
The author wrote in a colloquial style which was easy to read, but finding that prose was the hard part. She interrupted the prose whenever it was in danger of becoming too informative with fabricated comments from gossipy and chatty girls. As if that weren't distracting enough, there were fly trails, doodles, and twee wittle dot trails all over the text, interspersed with non-threatening headers like "Physician-Prescribed Brain Help: Medicine" using a font loaded with swirls and curlies.
"Ah hah!" you exclaim. "You just didn't like the book because you're a guy!" Yes, I thought the same, so I subjected my wife and daughter to the book. Neither of them has AD/HD so I was curious what they'd make of it.
My wife said the book was too difficult to read. It didn't keep her attention. My daughter ranted and raved in the kitchen for several minutes because she felt the book talked down to her and insulted her intelligence. If she only added pacing to her ranting she'd be a carbon copy of myself. Thank Heaven she did not.
This leads me to my ultimate, concise review for the book:
"The Girls' Guide to AD/HD" needs a label on the front cover to protect the innocent.
Warning: This book will induce AD/HD
Why you should read this book: You want to experience first hand what it is like to have AD/HD.
If you actually enjoy complex subjects being cutesified, you might enjoy this book, especially if you find most books on AD/HD far too dry and you are looking for a light, even kitschy, overview of the subject.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You have a low threshold for "Girl Power" themed books and don't enjoy complex subjects being dumbed down.
If you don't enjoy being talked down to and you like your information given to you without distractions, then this book's design and narrative voice will cause you to sweat, and your brain will desperately try to distract you away from the book in an attempt to save itself.
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Comments
Thanks!!!
I was very careful to NOT let my wife and daughter know how I felt about the book. I wanted their unbiased feedback. I was suspicious that I was too estrogen challenged to get the book, but was relieved that my girls agreed with me. :) About the book, I mean. :p
Are you going to post your review at Amazon?
I thought of leaving a review there. Probably could. I just haven't made the time. I wouldn't post my current review, however. This is a humor blog for the most part and so I pulled out all the stops. It'd be a bit violent in comparison to the others there and perhaps a bit too cruel. LOL
I have AD/HD, but I'm a guy and admit that there are differences between the sexes that I could use tips on. I had high hopes for this book to unlock the mind of my eight year old daughter for me. However, this book is mostly written for teenage girls and wasn't helpful for me in that regard. In addition, the layout of this book was excruciating to follow. I had a hard time thumbing through it, nevermind reading it. The side "conversations" peppered throughout the book served only to distract from the content, and the fly trails and doodles were even worse. I let my wife and teenage daughter read the book. Neither of them have AD/HD. My wife found the book difficult to read, and my daughter became angry with the book. "How come girls guides to everything are always stupid and contrived?" she ranted. I thought maybe I didn't like the book because I was not the intended target, but my wife and daughter's reaction mirrored my own. There are other books out there that cover the same information in a more concise manner. The only chapter I enjoyed was the one covering famous people with AD/HD. Other than that, the material is written as a Dummies Guide to AD/HD as the author tends to shy away from sounding intelligent. In this case you CAN judge a book by its cover. The creators of this book think your girls with AD/HD are dumb. I disagree and I wish I hadn't purchased this book.
It's garbage like that which feeds the stereotype that girls are dumb. Grrrr!
And girls with AD/HD don't need to feel any less inferior than they might already due to their disorder. (no pun intended :))
But I can tell it's a sore spot for you. LOL My daughter became angry at the book all over again after reading my review.
Unfortunately, too many nonfiction books written for the adult female audience can be just as poorly-written and intellectually insulting as anything peddled in the teen-girl market. Seems I must needs rise up and write "The Girl's Guide to Kicking the Trash out of Patronizing Writers", ne?
The question I have is this. Is the female majority truly dumb as a bag of bricks or is that merely a loud and vocal (i.e. flashy) minority? Yes, "Girls Gone Wild" seems to have an unending supply of drunken idiot co-eds that happily flash for the camera, but aren't they the exception to the rule? And although all the girls in my house thrill to look pretty and shop and window shop and shop and talk about shopping, they also use computers, discuss politics, achieve academically, read for pleasure, and work hard. I see my girls as the norm, I suppose, but I wonder why society, even female society, talks down to women. Being one man surrounded by five women has certainly brought this problem to my attention.
Thanks for posting.
"I thought this book was awful!!!! I looked at it a few times when I was in your downstairs bathroom. I didn't say anything, because I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I couldn't figure out why you liked it. After all , it was in your bathroom for awhile. So you must like it, right ? I agree with [your daughter] totally. I found the author offensive. Such a relief to know we agree......... mum"
No, Mum. I didn't like it, but I really wanted to be fair to the book so I repeatedly came back to the book to give it another chance. However, the true reason it stayed in my bathroom for so long is because I have AD/HD and just forgot about it in between all those attempts at fairness. (@_@)
~Douglas
Also, I looked on Amazon and couldn't see your review. Is it still there somewhere?
My review has been removed? Let's check it out!
Yessiree, it's gone. Amazon has a reputation for removing negative reviews. I'm not surprised they took mine down. I wonder if it has to do with ratings, but I never take the time to experiment. Meaning, if x amount of people did not find your review helpful Amazon will yank it. But that sort of rating can be skewed by a crack team of author friends. ;)
There's one negative review there. She's taking a pounding in the ratings. I've voted her up. If you have time to kill go on over there and do the same. Unless you value your time or something or are allergic to distractions. :p