Facile pop-psychology from a clinical psychologist with the credentials to know better. Assigning a chapter each to a select range of feelings—nearly all of them painful or negative ones, such as guilt, fear or anger, with but one shorter chapter allotted to the likes of love and joy—Lamia offers generalizations about what emotional responses look and feel like, typical circumstances that might cause them to arise and superficial insights (“Negative or worried thoughts spoil a good mood”). She also offers bland palliative suggestions (“Forgive yourself and move on”), self-quizzes, sound-bite comments in the margins from young people and, in colored boxes labeled “Psych Notes,” relevant research abstracts from cited but hard-to-obtain professional sources. Aside from a mildly discouraging view of “Infatuation,” she isn’t judgmental or prescriptive, but her overview is so cursory that she skips the stages of grief, makes no distinction between disgust and contempt and barely takes notice of depression. Teens and preteens might come away slightly more self-aware, but they won’t find either motivation or tools to help them cope with major upset. (Self-help. 12-16)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4338-0890-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
Readers will learn some basic facts about sex differences, but it'll take some extra leaps on their parts to connect all the...
Bite-sized pieces of scientific research seek to illuminate the gender gap.
Taking a mostly humorous approach, Rosen examines the stereotypes that paint men as the ones who never ask for directions and women as the ones who talk all the time. Some of these stereotypes turn out to be rooted in biology and can be demonstrated scientifically, such as how room temperature affects how men and women learn. Others are more a product of society and culture, such as women smiling more than men due to sex roles in the media. Each stereotype is covered in a short, two-page spread, featuring full-color photos and well-written text that doesn't try too hard to be cool. In a few instances, Rosen doesn't make enough of a connection between nature and nurture, though—like not pointing out the societal impact of boys’ demonstrated tendency to equate girls with power tools when looking them at the beach. Without going deeper into these stereotypes, this title remains on the surface.
Readers will learn some basic facts about sex differences, but it'll take some extra leaps on their parts to connect all the dots to understand just what it all means. (source notes, selected bibliography, further resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4677-1610-9
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
A realistic look at a hard-fought fight.
The garment workers’ struggle for better wages and employment conditions is vividly portrayed in a story of two Jewish sisters living and working in Toronto during the Depression.
Sophie and Rose toil long, brutal hours in a garment factory in order to support themselves and their ill, widowed mother. When union organizers from the United States encourage a dressmaker’s strike, at first the girls think that marching with the others will be bold and courageous. But when Rose is arrested and imprisoned for disorderly conduct, 14-year-old Sophie is left to care for their mother while continuing to support the strike. Intense, dramatic descriptions bring out the hardships of sweatshop life in the early 1930s, making plain the motivations for the efforts of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. A realistic clash of cultures is seen in the undertones of anti-Semitism that correspond to Jewish distrust of gentiles. In addition, vague references to sexual abuse in a prison environment underscore Rose’s dramatic turnaround from a strong, feisty character to one of timid sadness. The well-developed characterization folds in some historical figures, such as Emma Goldman and Bernard Shane of the ILGWU. Yiddish phrases sprinkled throughout the text provide a distinct, Jewish-immigrant environment for this persuasive narrative with its candid message about the realities of a labor action.
A realistic look at a hard-fought fight. (author’s notes, further reading, websites) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-927583-76-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Second Story Press
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
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