This quick and dirty overview reads more like something written by teens than for them.
A lopsided outline of arguments for treatment and incarceration of drug offenders in the United States.
In five brief, anecdote-laden chapters, Mooney (Biodiversity, 2019, etc.) attempts to present both sides of her self-imposed titular binary. She first examines the rationales for and shortcomings of imprisonment in a nation where 20% of incarcerated people are serving time for drug offenses. Though the harsh punishments wrought by mandatory minimums and truth in sentencing laws are invoked as deterrents by their defenders, she summarizes a single study for partial evidence even though it did not focus on drug crime before citing contrary research specifically examining drug offenses which fails to note any significant correlation. Later chapters reviewing alternatives to incarceration prove a bit more substantial, describing in-prison substance abuse treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy; therapeutic communities, that house and treat participants; and medication-assisted treatment, which combines behavioral therapy with approved medications to combat opioid addictions, noncarceral alternative sentencing programs, and drug courts. Troublingly, this account largely ignores systemic and institutional considerations. Mooney confines commentary on the relationship between race and the judicial system to a single half-page sidebar detailing disparities in arrests and outcomes; similarly, she makes no mention of the pharmaceutical industry’s role in precipitating the ongoing opioid epidemic despite frequent references to the crisis.
This quick and dirty overview reads more like something written by teens than for them. (source notes, organizations, further reading, index, picture credits) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68282-739-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: ReferencePoint Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo.
On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage
of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. The lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers.
Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-16576-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Unhappy teens in need of a lecture on thinking positively and being more in touch with one’s emotions need look no further.
Mangan presents in as many chapters a 20-point strategy that ranges from “Have a Positive Attitude” and “Cut Your Problems Into Pieces” to “Practice Being Patient” and “Appreciate the Value of Your Hard Work.” She blends private exercises like visualizing forgiveness with comments on selective attention, “problematic procrastination” and other bad habits, reframing situations to put them in different lights, “changing shoes” to understand others better and subjecting feelings to rational analysis. Though the author has a graduate degree and years of practice in clinical psychology, she offers generalities and generic situations rather than specific cases from her experience, and the book is devoid of references to further resources or even an index. Superficial advice (“If you are unsafe or are around kids that you know are bullies, just walk away”) combines with techniques that are unlikely to interest readers (“Make a song verse out of your list of helpful thoughts”). The author also makes questionable claims about the mind-body connection (“When you smile, your body sends a signal to your brain that you are happy”) and fails to make a case for regarding side forays into food habits and environmental concerns as relevant to her topic. Obvious issues and common-sense advice, unpersuasively presented. (Self-help. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4338-1040-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
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