Attention Deficit Disorder: Only a Mother Could Love Him by Ben Polis - Book 52, 2009

Title: Attention Deficit Disorder: Only a Mother Could Love Him by Ben Polis
Genre: health, real-life experience
Rating: 9/10
Plot summary: Ben Polis was the nightmare kid every parent and teacher dreads - hyperactive, impulsive, unable to check his emotions, disruptive and violent. Childhood highlights include riding his bike over and killing the neighbour's dog, causing a major electrical blackout and being suspended and/or expelled from six separate schools. Yet somehow this powder keg of a boy who could not read a sentence until he was 11 managed to turn around his life sufficiently to pass Year 12 and get into university. Realising that he would never be able to work for anyone else, he took a course in business entrepreneurship and wrote and self-published a book on growing up with ADD, the effect on his family, peers and self and techniques he has learnt to manage his condition. By the end of the book he is tutoring another young boy with ADD and trying to help parents and teachers better understand life from the perspective with someone with ADD.
Comments: This is a fascinating, if harrowing, tale and provides insight for those who have to live with ADD - both the sufferers and their suffering family and neighbourhood. While it is just one person's imperfect view of the condition with little scientific depth or research, it is an easy-to-read and accessible book that provides a real perspective on ADD.