Thursday, 8 February 2018
"Dear Katie - Real Problems, Real Advice" by Katie Thistleton, Radha Modgil and Sally Angel (Orion Children's Books)
So for this one I'll hand over to my wife who kindly takes on the task of scrutinising "self help" books along with C. Take it away, Ali!
Katie Thistleton is a television and radio presenter who has hosted BBC Radio 1's "The Surgery" alongside Dr Radha Modgil.
Along with Psychotherapist Sally Angel, the three have set up a website and YouTube Channel where teens can submit questions to be answered by the panel. The results have now been brought together in "Dear Katie", a book designed to offer advice and answers for some of life's most pressing matters for girls (and indeed teens in general as there's plenty of advice in here that would apply to both boys and girls).
Though the book has its heart definitely in the right place, the first issue encountered was with categorisation and 'sectioning out' the subjects. There's no real index, so you'll have to read through the whole thing (and in some cases some quite lengthy and rambling answers) to get to the point that's most relevant to your own problems or questions. The book could really have done with a decent way of collecting together subjects in easy-to-pick-through sections for sure.
Katie's approach often involves 'Self-scenarios'. Sometimes it's good to compare your own problems with the problems in the question. Sometimes though it can wear a bit thin, particularly when answers wander off at a random tangent before getting to the point (quite what 'nearly wetting yourself from laughing in a maths lesson' had to do with a genuine concern about maths and lesson anxiety was a bit lost on us).
Thankfully the 'experts' answers are very helpful and get to the point, sometimes their answers are a lot better than Katie's examples. Worryingly there was a concern throughout that teens might opt to take her advice over theirs though?
Which led us to another question we had about this - Did doctors and therapists read Katie's responses (to fact-check them). Did they sit down and answer the questions together? We really hope so (and assume so).
Aside from the category / index issue, the book's layout is definitely designed for teenage appeal - to look like a teen journal and be voiced as such.
"Dear Katie" contains several exercises to help boost your self confidence and self-worth. Sometimes we found the exercises a bit random and esoteric - once again with a lot of focus on 'me me me' with no real acknowledgement that sometimes you are only a tiny part of an overall problem and sometimes issues need to be addressed by parents, teachers and the child themselves - often together.
Tips on homework revision were very good, though one of the examples set out a jokey answer to quite a serious matter and did not give any advice about seeking help from the teacher or school which seemed a bit odd.
Another specific question about uniform and school seemed to completely miss the point of them, and conformity, rules etc and their importance both in school and in later life.
Another specific question about uniform and school seemed to completely miss the point of them, and conformity, rules etc and their importance both in school and in later life.
Though it is indeed good to question 'why' uniforms are often adopted and needed, and what life lesson that is actually teaching a child, it's very important to see that issue from both sides. We were disappointed that there was no mention of a professional need sometimes to dress smartly and consistently, nor sometimes how this can actually help in schools where children come from a wide range of financial backgrounds.
Lastly, the cover image seemed at odds with some of the messages the book was trying to impart. Quite self-promoting (why not a group shot of all three contributors?).
Lastly, the cover image seemed at odds with some of the messages the book was trying to impart. Quite self-promoting (why not a group shot of all three contributors?).
Does a teenage advice book need a glamorous fashion-shoot style portrait of Katie?
Other therapy and self help books make do with something inside the back cover. Seems at odds with the message about social media imagery etc in some of the cases in the book itself.
We would gauge that the book's intended age group was around Year 6 to year 8 (Those just about to sit SATs / moving up to Secondary School) so slightly older than our daughter - more kids who are just about to hit the "I Hate My Parents" stage and are still struggling with social circles in secondary school.
We would gauge that the book's intended age group was around Year 6 to year 8 (Those just about to sit SATs / moving up to Secondary School) so slightly older than our daughter - more kids who are just about to hit the "I Hate My Parents" stage and are still struggling with social circles in secondary school.
The book lightly touches on subjects such as parents, friends, social media, first boyfriends, first period, Self Image, Depression and Anxiety, exam stress, very lightly on sexuality / coming out / feelings associated with this. Probably appropriate again given the intended age group but no mention of the age range the questions were originally raised by (which would be really important information for this). No sex bits - Too much of a morass to unpick and it's probably right that the book steered clear of these with just a very light touch on first boyfriends instead.
Positively though, almost all the subjects covered are addressed in a friendly supporting manner with suggestions on how you can deal with situations, areas of concern and references to support groups and external sources of information - this was really good to see.
Positively though, almost all the subjects covered are addressed in a friendly supporting manner with suggestions on how you can deal with situations, areas of concern and references to support groups and external sources of information - this was really good to see.
Overall it's not a bad book. "Dear Katie" has its heart is in the right place. A few instances where answers were a bit too "Katie" where more generic advice may have been more suitable.
We really do think that having references and categories may have messed up the intended 'journal' look and feel but these would have helped greatly, it's all a bit too randomly ordered which would make it difficult to make your way through if you have a specific question in mind.
Though C is a couple of years too young for the book she thought the cover was appealing to girls, bright colours, light hearted and friendly looking, nice big 'glam' pic of Katie.
"Dear Katie" by Katie Thistleton, Radha Modgil and Sally Angel is out now, published by Orion Publishing (kindly supplied for review).
We really do think that having references and categories may have messed up the intended 'journal' look and feel but these would have helped greatly, it's all a bit too randomly ordered which would make it difficult to make your way through if you have a specific question in mind.
Though C is a couple of years too young for the book she thought the cover was appealing to girls, bright colours, light hearted and friendly looking, nice big 'glam' pic of Katie.
"Dear Katie" by Katie Thistleton, Radha Modgil and Sally Angel is out now, published by Orion Publishing (kindly supplied for review).
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