Rating: 
Summary: True story, good book.
Review: I made it through this book in one night. The conversational tone and great fluency, coupled with an interesting true story made it possible.Katherine Tarbox, like so many young people, is in search for some attention because her parents are preoccupied with work and social status. She finds the attention and adulation in an AOL chat room and begins an online relationship which quickly spirals out of control. I won't ruin the ending, but you'll be pretty staisfied. Warning for teachers/parents: this book does contain use of a sexual act term and the "F-word" once or twice. However, I would not allow those two things to prevent anyone from reading this book. It's accurate portrayal of an online pedophile's trap is powerful enough that parents and teens should read it---together. It got four stars instead of five because it was good, but not great.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: This book was everything... sad, scary, sweet, funny, everything and more. Everyone with the internet should read this book, and be aware of the dangers! I really respect Katie for sharing her story with the world. It was a very personal book. Remember, it could happen to you! So be careful who you talk with in chat rooms! I read it in 2 days, I couldn't wait to see what happened next.
Rating:
Summary: makes you think
Review: This book started out kinda slow, but as i read on, i became very connected to it. katherine tarbox expressed her feelings so well. she really brings the reader into the book. i would recommend this book to those above 13. It is great for parents of teens that spend a lot of time on the internet, and its great for teens.
Rating: 
Summary: New Screen Name?
Review: What bothers me most about this book is its title, which must have been chosen only for its alliteration (neither Katie.net or Tarbox.com works as good). It makes it sound as if Katie had set up a web site dedicated to herself, perhaps allowing subscribers to watch her via a low-fi video feed. Instead, it is the memoir of an early teen who meets a guy in an online chat room and eventually meets him in a hotel. None of this innocent, and the author doesn't pretend it is. There are many blameworthy parties, and Tarbox interrogates them all: the charming/creepy guy, of course, but also her parents, her community and school, and even herself. It is fascinating how little (fortunately) is actually done to her physical, yet the social and psychological repercussions from the incident are devastating. Most remarkable is the fact that the authorities actually treated her case seriously. The undergraduate feminist rhetoric at the end seems a bit pat, but Tarbox is still young and trying to find the right voice for her story. Come to think of it, maybe the title isn't so inapt. After all, Katie was involved in a commercial endeavor, both as a customer of and as a commodity for AOL (which cooperated fully with the investigation). In the end, Katie's tale is NOT about new threats from novel technologies, but rather it is an old and familiar story, just with a new character. Teenagers are schizophrenically liminal, between children and adults, indispensable consumers who are told that they are the future, yet who are nonetheless usually powerless. Katie (now Katherine) is wiser, having learn from what happened to her--what was allowed to happen to her. Has anyone else?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, interesting book!
Review: I don't understand why people don't seem to of liked this book. I enjoyed every minute of it- and I'm one of those teens who doesn't like to read very much! Its ending was great, and the book kept my interest. KATIE.COM will speak out to any teenager who uses/used a chat-line, and warns of the dangers they hold. This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as one of my favorite books of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Chat Room hi-Jinks
Review: This gripping, non-fiction autoriography interested me to the very end of the book, whose theme is the danger of on-line chat rooms. You never know wht could happen.
In this book, Katie meets a man in an on-line chat room. the two decide to meet in person, and the guy turns out to be three times Katie's age and sexually abuses her. Katie and her mother decide to press charges, and the man is sent to jail, but only for one year.
Katie.com interested me very much. It was one of the stories I will remember forever. Although this book may not be for everyone, I find non-fiction very interesting. It tells about everyday life. Sometimes I get into on-line chat rooms, and I found it hard to believe what harm could really come from them. Reading this taught me never to trust something someone tells me in a chat room.
At the end of her book, Katie talks about how parents today must protect their children on the Internet, even if the children are teenagers. I completely agree with this. If parents don't watch out for their kids, then the same thing that happened to Katie could happen to them. Katie's parents thought it couldn't happen to her, but it did.
The issues this book raises are simple: Can you trust people on the Internet today?" "Is it possible to meet someone face-to-face that you have only met throught the Internet?" "Should we exclude young teens from using chat rooms?"
This book is very good. It makes you take time to give the Internet a second look. People may get on just for fun, but you have to watch what you do. It is scary how one girl's life changed in only one day. I think you should never get emotionally involved in a relationship over the Internet, especially when you are young.
Although the beginning of the book is slow and it is somewhat difficult to get into, I would recommend this book to anybody who goes to chat rooms or just to anyone who wants to read a really good book. It is a good lesson to learn from someone else's mistake. I could read it over and over and still find the story line amazing. I found it to be time well spent!
Rating: 
Summary: I think I wasted my money
Review: I was having a problem about my relationship online so I thought to myself why not read this book? It seemed to be interesting and it might help me somehow. Well, I think I wasted my money. This book is [aweful]. Three-quarter of the book is spent on babbling about her life, how cruel it is to her... Very little about that guy. And the last few chapters are about how sad you were and so on. I do feel sorry for you. Believe me I know how horrible it feels. It's such a sad thing to be betrayed by someone whom you loved so much... If I'm not wrong, this is a book about a girl who's been fooled...
Rating:
Summary: Thanks
Review: Hi my name is karen and I am forteen years old, i like this book very very muchl, my freinds at school told me abowt this book and it taugt me how to rite into a chatroom on the interent and how to meet older man cuz all the boys in my school are boring and thye dont know how to treet a girl good. now I rite on a chatroom every day and i have meet many intresting and good looking men. and all because this book showed me how. I will be more careful then the riter of this book thogh when I meet this men in person, I will not make the same misstakes. I would like to meet an older man cuz then all the girls in my school will be jelous of me.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry this happens to so many stupid girls
Review: Lucky me, I checked this book out from the library. Had I spent any money on it, I would've felt gipped. (sp?) It's too bad this happens to so many girls, but wow - how stupid can you be? Believe me, I've been there, so I know what I'm talking about. Anyway, this book reads more like a diary would - Katie confesses her tale of woe of being upperclass & lonely. But boy, did she paint her parents in a bad light! I'd be surprised if she was still on speaking terms with them, putting all this in print. Ah but yes - it's a TRUE STORY. Finally, why was the book named "katie.com" when no one related to the book owns it? That was pretty lame...don't tell me the marketing people didn't check this out. The poor woman who owns that domain is still waiting for an apology - what, 3 years later?
Rating:
Summary: Hello!? Was this written in 1950?
Review: The most upsetting parts of this book are the adult reactions to what happened. The step-father asks Katie if she feels guilty for 'ruining a man's life'. The mother makes Katie apologize to her swim team for ruining their swim meet. Have we as people not progressed from these 1950's era 'blame the victim' mentalities? Katie was 13! 13 year olds are not adults. When a child is abused/molested/taken advantage of by an adult male, it is HIS FAULT. It is a sad day for us when we are so busy earning money and climbing the social ladder that we are not there for our children. No one should have been surprised at what happened to Katie. She should have received love and support and promises to be there for her; not accusations and blame. Shame on the adults in her life who let her down.
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