Put down your phone and pick up this valuable and accessible read for everyone navigating the digital age.
A comprehensive guide designed to help readers understand and improve their relationship with technology and “make space for joy.”
This engagingly crafted book, written by two psychologists from the Screens & Gaming Disorder Clinic in Sydney, Australia, decodes the mechanisms behind smartphone dependency and offers practical strategies for cultivating a healthy relationship with technology. The authors explain the physiological and psychological feedback loops that shape developing brains and reveal the strategies that tech companies use to manipulate the brain’s reward and warning centers, hooking the user’s attention. Marshall and Hassock divide their material into 10 chapters, each covering one step that’s supported by a toolkit packed with clear questions and advice delivered in digestible, bite-size bullet points. The ideas include tracking time spent on apps, developing emotional regulation skills, and fostering offline connections with friends and family. Infused with warmth and optimism, this approachable, nonjudgmental work blends clinical insights with scientific evidence. Bohémier’s cheerful full-color spot art and background illustrations, which include depictions of racially diverse young people, amplify the friendly tone without undermining its seriousness. This book isn’t anti-technology; it’s a user-friendly guide for teens who are heavily invested in electronic devices and seeking a healthier balance. It will also serve as a useful resource for adult caregivers who are tackling the challenges of supporting technology-addicted teenagers.
Put down your phone and pick up this valuable and accessible read for everyone navigating the digital age. (author’s note, glossary, resources) (Nonfiction. 13-18)Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9781419776984
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Magic Cat
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today.
A beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s (Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans.
Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The creators smoothly and cleverly embed the historical context within which Takei’s family’s story takes place, allowing readers to simultaneously experience the daily humiliations that they suffered in the camps while providing readers with a broader understanding of the federal legislation, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. The heroes who fought against this and provided support to and within the Japanese American community, such as Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins, are also highlighted, but the focus always remains on the many sacrifices that Takei’s parents made to ensure the safety and survival of their family while shielding their children from knowing the depths of the hatred they faced and danger they were in. The creators also highlight the dangerous parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and legislation used against Japanese Americans and the trajectory of current events. Delicate grayscale illustrations effectively convey the intense emotions and the stark living conditions.
A powerful reminder of a history that is all too timely today. (Graphic memoir. 14-adult)Pub Date: July 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-60309-450-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Top Shelf Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2019
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