New Harbinger Publications Press Release, Mar. 4, 2008
Contact: Earlita Chenault at (510) 652-0215, ext. 142
March 4, 2008
Oakland, CA:
Teen author Blake E.S. Taylor has made a habit of exceeding expectations. New Harbinger Publications is happy to announce that the same can be said of his book ADHD & Me: What I Learned From Lighting Fires At The Dinner Table. The absorbing book by the UC Berkeley freshman, chronicling what it was like growing up with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is moving briskly, selling out the original print run immediately and sending the book back to the printer twice in the past thirty days. Diagnosed with ADHD at the age of five, Taylor recalls how the disorder often led to hyperactive — and sometimes impulsive — behavior, such as launching rockets into neighbors’ swimming pools, setting off alarms at a museum in a quest to touch a T-Rex, and, of course, lighting a fire at the dinner table. ADHD & Me is filled with such anecdotes, as well as with the consequences of his ADHD-driven behavior. As an added bonus to others with this condition Blake punctuates each tale with an explanation of the ADHD symptom that caused the event (for example, being impulsive, being distracted, being disorganized, etc.), followed by tips on how to manage these symptoms.
The message of ADHD & Me is that while ADHD is characterized by distractibility, impulsivity and hyperactivity on one hand, on the other it is marked by creativity, energy and intuition. Blake Taylor strongly believes that ADHD should be considered a difference, not a disorder, and that young people can learn to harness its many gifts to become successful. After just four short weeks in print and an author media blitz which has included a feature in The San Francisco Chronicle, a radio tour, a nationally syndicated newspaper interview, and a CNN.com interview in the “Young People Who Rock” blog, ADHD & Me is being discussed and debated online, and Blake Taylor has as many appearance requests from bookstores as he can accommodate with his full course load.
“It is really exciting,” says Taylor of the widespread interest in his book. “I’m overjoyed that my book is helping so many people with ADHD.”
One thing is certain: whether it’s kids who can relate to Blake Taylor and his experiences, parents and grandparents who find him inspirational and are eager to buy his book for the kids in their lives, or those who voice their objection online to Taylor’s course of treatment, people are talking about ADHD & Me.