What's the Catch?: How to Avoid Getting Hooked and Manipulated (All About Me)

The third book in Hoopoe’s “All About Me” series, What’s the Catch? looks at how people (from our parents to our peers) and media (from TV commercials to the Internet) try to influence us. In many situations, we’re influenced to think, feel or behave in ways that we might not otherwise pursue. Sometimes such influence is helpful, but at other times we end up being shortchanged. What’s the Catch? explores situations and presents examples that will help readers become more aware of the forces nudging and pushing them. It includes many fun and entertaining activities they can do over and over again, to help them distinguish between situations when they’re being helped and situations when they’re manipulated, brainwashed or tricked. And they’ll learn when and how to protect themselves from unwanted influence. Author David Sobel, M.D., is a practicing physician who presents ideas in ways that are easy to read and absorb. The book is illustrated by artist Jeff Jackson with an engaging cast of teen characters and images to help highlight these ideas. The “All About Me” series presents books to help teens and preteens understand themselves and how they, as human beings, “work.” This is fundamental information, but we often forget to teach it in school – for example, what psychologists know about how we see, think, and feel; how these abilities work, change, grow or get stuck; and how reliable they are as we try to make sense of ourselves, our friends, our relatives and the world around us. There is good, solid information readily available and scientifically validated – and it’s all about you ... and me.