Rating: 
Summary: Watch Out!!!
Review: Katie.com really kept me interested. It is a true story by Katherine Tarbox. It really shows you what can happen over the internet. I don't want to tell the whole story because I believe everyone that uses instant messanger should read this book to find out what can really happen. The main plot of this story is that Katie talks with this guys named "mark" on the internet for about 6 months. They finaly agree to meet eachother at a swim meet and ...... you'll have to read it to find out. It is really surprizing. I hope you read it because it is really good.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic View of an Adolescent's World
Review: The fresh and straight-forward way that Katie portrays her life as a teen in today's society is a must-read for teens and parents alike. Katie lets us into a world that many of us just don't see or understand. Her message of the loneliness, insecurities, and pain that kids face should help us to better handle kids.
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Summary: Letter to the Author
Review: La Crescenta, California January 16, 2001Ms. Katherine Tarbox New Canaan, Connecticut Dear Ms. Tarbox, I recently read your book, Katie. Com. I picked it up from the teen section of the local library thinking it was about a website, due to the Dot-Com title. I loved, enjoyed, and understood your true novel thoroughly and mentally . As the new millennium begins, everyone all around the world will soon have access to the internet. As a teenager myself, I use the internet, I am a member of AOL, send IM¹s, go into chat rooms and converse with strangers who are likewise talking to a stranger too. It¹s true that teenage years are the hardest and most difficult years of a persons¹ lifetime, and that is why I believe I can relate to your story strongly. Some reasons I can relate to your story are that; many teens nowadays use the internet to meet new people, and begin relationship/friendships. These teens turn to the internet to fulfill the loneliness inside of them somehow. Some of these teens turn to the computer rather than reality because, they feel they have no chance or say in the real world, which is caused by family problems, loneliness, unconcerned friends, and peer pressure. In your story, about your struggle to find love and attention, you went through a misled journey with the internet. One day as you signed-on, a male with the screen name, Valleyguy, IM-ed you. Soon you both got a conversation going and you thought you fell in love with him immediately because you were vulnerable at age thirteen. The chatting with Valleyguy or Mark, soon turned into phone calls and letters, that your parents and friends were unaware of. Quickly you started a bond and relationship with Mark. The climax of your story was when you planned to meet him privately in a hotel room in Texas, during your Swim Team Meet. There you became an innocent victim of rape and child pedophilia. I totally understand what happened to you during your transition from junior high to high school. During this transition you meet new friends, old friends change vastly, your best friends meet guys and soon have boyfriends, your parents are always away at work and you are left home alone with nothing but quick, unsupervised access to the information highway. You sign on to AOL and soon you are free to explore websites, and enter chat rooms that sometimes are the worst place to be. You get an Instant Message from someone who claims to be a cute guy wanting a girlfriend and all of a sudden, you¹re happy. The one negative aspect about the internet is, that you can never be certain the person is what they claim to be. And unfortunately you had to be an innocent victim of this unjust, unsafe, use of the internet, when a 50 year old child molester becomes your on-line boyfriend. In the climax of your book you said, ³I was now about to meet the man I loved... I lifted my hand and tapped gently on the door.² After reading this I felt very sad and worried about what would happen next. I feel sorrowful saying this, because I know you were innocent and you still might be recuperating from it, but why would you ever want to meet the guy privately in a hotel room when you knew there could be possible dangers? Almost every day on the news we hear that a female got murdered or raped by someone that they knew, and you just went out to meet Mark during your Swim Team Meet in Texas. After reading your book I decided I would never want to meet someone in private, where the number of dangers are infinite. I do believe that what happened to you and the courage you received from it in order to write a novel, was remarkable. The one part I can¹t relate to is how you felt after the hotel room incident and how you felt the months afterward during the trial. I know it must have been really difficult to know the man you had a relationship for 6 months would do such a thing to you, and you had to be testifying against him. I truly believe that you had an enormous amount of courage to write about a horrifying experience and have to talk about it over and over again, but you did gain something from it. In your epilogue you wrote: ³That not talking about it is really dangerous.² When I read those words, I understood that your novel gained other females¹ attentions to take the internet seriously and learn the rules of the internet, which you are not given when you sign on. I am very thankful towards you for writing this novel, because from now on I take an extra caution when I go on-line. Sincerely, Nane Zadouri
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't affect me like it should have...
Review: 1. Doesn't quite convey her emotions, or rather, the full impact of them. 2. Leaves out much detail regarding Frank's trial. This would have been compelling. 3. More a critique of social values than a memoir of a turbulent 3 years. 4. At times petulant. 5. Lack of experience behind the keyboard shows, though all fruit ripens with time.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly store for such a lovely girl
Review: It is a shame that every day in the United States, innocent women and children are preyed upon by evil sadistic people lurking over the internet. Katie's unfortunate lesson in life probably arose through the lack of a true father figure - Dave. If Davey was a little more supportive (duh), maybe then Katie wouldn't have succomb to temptation. A definite good book for parents to read to ensure that their children do not walk the streets in search of temptations that they will one day say they regret.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Story
Review: Bravery and courage such as that exhibited by Katie in discussing the pressures and traps that so many teens are exposed to in today's society are truly admirable traits. Victims need to learn to be able to speak up and help prevent the same thing from happening to other potential victims. Victims can and should fight back. Educating the public is clearly an important mission. An unbelievable number of teens are confrontede with situations such as Katie's. Yes, some of them don't make the same mistakes as Katie did, many of them do. Katie is courageous in warning of these dangers and how seroius the impact is on the victims. Until I read the book, I never understood how devastating a situation like Katie's is. If this book prevents a similar thing or something even worse from happening to someone else, Katie's mission has been accomplished.
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Summary: Must Read
Review: Rare and refreshing view of teenage girl's life and all the fears and decisions they face. Made me reflect upon my own teen years and how I could be more helpful to my own adolescent kids.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Perspective!
Review: The topic of this book intrigued me, but I was dubious of whether a seventeen year old would possess the writing skills necessary to put a whole book together. After reading Katie.com, I am totally amazed at Katie's ability to convey her story both with a sense of introspection where needed, enoughh humor so that it is not too morose, and a freshness that clearly reminds me that a teen wrote the book. The story is compelling and certainly tells a cautionary tale that all teens and parents should read. I look forward to more of Katie Tarbox's writing.
Rating: 
Summary: ?
Review: Okay , I feel really bad for Katie about what happened to her ,and I don't want it to happen to anybody , but thats life!Im 14 and I am a writer. No 1 , I know what it's like to be 14 , everybody thinks they are depressed or crazy , but there not , their are other people like everybody! I mentioned I was a writer , and I can judge books. The only reason people read books by Stephen King and J.K Rowling is because they want to escape the harsh realities , a lot of people dont want to hear about someone's sob story. It was also poorly written. I hate to sound rude , but it seems like she spent no time plotting this book , and did it for pity. And why would you write about something like that? I really didn't like this book.
Rating:
Summary: An after-school special, strictly for the under 13 crowd
Review: What happened to Katie Tarbox was awful. Yet, the author manages to whine her way through almost 200 pages.... Her mom wasn't around for her, her family was too busy to pay attention to her, her friends were more interested in what kind of clothes she was wearing than anything else, the "pressure" she felt to blow her hair out every morning, how she felt ugly, how she felt fat, blah blah blah. Everyone feels that way when they are 13 or 14. Not everyone plans to meet a strange man off the internet, especially after he admits to lying about his age repeatedly. And not everyone got a book deal so they could cry about it. Yes it was terrible, but spare me the melodrama and self-indulgence -- the author is a brat who happened to fall on some really bad luck.
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