ADHD and the FierceFamily

We were supposed to go camping this weekend with the Girl Scouts and instead there was a hefty storm here. So, I read two books we recently checked out from the library for the kids: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key and Joey Pigza Loses Control. CommonSense Media review here.

Joey is a 4th grader with ADHD that is inadequately treated with medication, and is not treated with any other method. I found these books simultaneously entertaining and kind of depressing. Joey goes through lots of wacky highjinks and well-intended acts that end in disaster. Like the reviewer at CommonSense, I like that adults that live and work with Joey are not villanized - a very flawed and human bunch of well-meaning folks. But, the picture of ADHD is severe. Joey is unintentionally dangerous to himself and others, as many kids with ADHD can be - but to a really significant degree (he jumps from the rafters of a barn, he runs with scissors and chops off the end of a classmate’s nose, he pierces his dog’s ear with a dart, sticks his finger in a pencil sharpener, etc.). Both of his parents are alcoholics. His teacher’s idea of a behavior management plan is to tape a list of rules to his desk and to send him to the “Special Ed room” when he breaks them.

All in all, I would not recommend this book to a child with ADHD who is getting by alright. I think that the overall sense of ADHD it conveys is that it is a biological problem that makes kids dangerous and completely out of control. The overall feeling is that Joey has a very serious brain sickness, but that medication can reduce the severity of his sickness (to the author’s credit, he also briefly addresses some cognitive interventions and nutrition issues at the very end of the first book - though he also includes some misleading information about sugar). A child who is getting by and is trying to come to terms with managing ADHD would probably have a serious self-esteem blow to share a diagnosis with poor Joey Pigza.

On the other hand, it could be a decent read for the child who is seriously impaired by their ADHD, gets in serious trouble a lot, gets teased and ostracized for their constant bad behaviors, and/or has parents who are not managing their own lives very well. For those kids, having Joey portrayed as a sympathetic and well-meaning character who just needs the intervention of competent adults may be a good thing.

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