An evocative and insightful memoir of thriving with ADHD.
Denevi explores “the mountains of material on ADHD from the point of view of a patient.”
The author seeks a middle ground in the debate over whether ADHD is overdiagnosed and/or overmedicated. In his own case, the first symptoms of his problem were frequent meltdowns and impulsive behavior when playing with other children or in a classroom situation. He describes his earliest memory of a tantrum, when he experienced “something deeper than anger, a sense of desperation akin to homesickness” after being chastised for a minor infraction. Today, Denevi explains, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nine symptoms of ADHD, of which six must be met for a diagnosis. His behavior at age 5 fit all of the symptoms, but this was in 1985, when the condition was still poorly defined. Only after a year during which he was subjected to a number of tests to exclude food allergies or epilepsy was Denevi finally diagnosed with the condition. He was first prescribed Ritalin, but the medication increased his agitation, and he was switched to a mild antidepressant. He was also treated by a child psychologist throughout his childhood and adolescence, and his parents worked closely with his therapist and teachers to help him control his impulsiveness and distractibility. In classrooms where his teachers were sympathetic, his behavior improved, but he was the target of bullies. As he grew into his teens, his attitude became more flamboyant and assertive; this led him to minor delinquency. With strong support from his parents, he managed to excel academically. Now married and a father, Denevi still copes with symptoms of the disorder and takes small doses of Ritalin. In his view, the treatment of ADHD should aim to alleviate “the levels of conflict and stress” so that children can “make it safely into adulthood.”
Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0257-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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