ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 21st June 2019: "Geek Girls Don't Cry" by Andrea Towers (Sterling)

Our Chapter Book of the Week this week is a truly original idea for a self-help book that's chock-full of pop-culture references and characters in a book that's a hugely positive and inspirational read about a wide range of issues young folk (not just girls) go through in their transitions from tweens to teens to adults.

"Geek Girls Don't Cry" by Andrea Towers draws in a ton of fictional characters to show examples of how those characters deal with particular situations involving mental and physical health, stress, PTSD and other things that we, the reader, might experience during our lives.

It's a durned clever idea that could have gone so horribly wrong, ending up sounding rather patronising and twee - but Andrea uses solid examples and relatable fictional superhero (and not-so-superhero) characters to underpin her excellent counterpoints and advice.

Helping girls and boys deal with bullying, body positivity, isolation, grief, and depression but also dealing with more fine-grained issues that fictional characters and real-life humans like us, the book's approach steers towards a more positive tone, suggesting exercises, means and methods to use in your own life.

Let's take a look inside at this one, as it's really something special:

Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) is a prime example of a character coping with adversity and toughing out horrible situations

Andrea interviews and features excerpts from character writers and creators to help show how their own lives and influences directly fed into the way they wrote those characters in comics, novels and movies.

A fantastic Q & A with Margaret Stohl, bestselling author of "Black Widow: Forever Red"

Sum this book up in a sentence: A hugely inspirational read for geeks and non-geeks, helping ordinary everyday non-superhero folk to deal with situations in a realistic way thanks to some sage examples from superhero and fictional character stories.

"Geek Girls Don't Cry" by Andrea Towers is out now, published by Sterling (kindly supplied for review).