Katie.com: My Story

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Summary: An Amazing Story Written by an Even More Amazing Young Woman
Review: A must read for people of all ages. Katie.com is a real page turner! Katie's poignant and courageous account of being a teenager and her ordeal with an internet pedophile displays wisdom and talent far beyond her years. Through sharing her story with the world Katie has shown us the realities and dangers of adolescent life. Her honesty and dignity are skillfully brought out by her remarkable gift for writing. Young and old alike will relate to this most fascinating book.

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Summary: Eye Opening Account of the Perils Facing Today's Teens
Review: Katie's story is a must read for adults and teens alike. Her fresh and candid writing style quickly allows the reader to see how an unsuspecting teen can be swept into a dangerous liaison through the web. Hopefully, teens and their parents will learn from Katie's experiences the necessity of protecting themselves from internet predators.

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Summary: hey you,read this before you go meet wild!
Review: I used to go chat for 3 hours or more a day and I would simply trust all the people in the chat room,but now that I have read this,it made me think twice. thank you so much for writing this book!

Rating:
Summary: very powerful
Review: As being a teen myself reading Katie's book was very viral to protection of myself when giving out information on chatrooms or anywhere on the internet. Katie is a wonderful brave hero and and a romodel to all teens who love to chat but yet don't know or/and don't understand the dangers of whoever may be on the other side of the computer.

Rating:
Summary: Moving Story
Review: Katie's life-learning biography is a moving story of a girl who's life is like that of the richest, but her status clearly isn't a way for her to appreciate her family, not that they never loved her but the inappropriate perceptions they have had. Katie's story speaks not only to potential victims of the main incident but as well to parents, siblings and everybody involved in anindividual's social circle, means all of us.

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Summary: katie.com --- the SNL skit
Review: Save your money, here it is in a nutshell:

Oh, I don't fit in with the other kids at school.

Hello internet man, you DO sound sexy AND you own a BMW!!!

Hey schoolmates, guess who has a new TWENTY THREE year old boyfriend?

OH MY GAWD!!! I'm in love!!!

Of course I want to see you muffin cakes.

Ewwwww, you're not TWENTY THREE, you're like FOURTY!

Oh, well, you'll do...just don't...don't tell my friends how old you are.

Knock knock knock.

Crap! That's my mom, you are SOO busted.

....meanwhile...back in suburbia

He was SUCH a liar, he was NOT cute, yeah...I'm writing a book about it, I'm going to be WAY popular on the internets...I'm like an expert now you know...like I mean on being safe and everything...I'm soo ready for the next man...

.....

Thank me now...and go buy something else...

Rating:
Summary: All Online Teens Need to Read!
Review: I am bemused by the number of reviewers on this board who have given this book one star out of righteous indignation over copyright infringement. The choice of the title is unfortunate if it caused pain & suffering to an innocent Web user not affiliated with this book. However, let's be perfectly clear: Katie Tarbox had NO control over the final choice of book title, just as she had no control over the cover art, layout, final editing decisions or marketing campaign. Even famous, established authors don't have that kind of control, never mind a teenage, first-time author. And the stylistic quibbles are moot, too. If Katie sounds like a 14-year-old on the page, it's because, well, she WAS 14 when she penned her story. In editorial terms, it's called preserving voice, and that's what her editors (rightly) have done--letting a teenager tell HER story, in HER words. A kerfluffle over copyright infringement obscures the message of Katie's story, and it's a message that deserves--NEEDS--to be heard by this generation of online teenagers.

I am a young adult librarian serving a largely Internet-savvy audience of teens aged 11 & up. April is National Internet Safety Month, and I plan to have my young adult book club read Katie's story. Her message is particularly topical to my audience as we've had several sexual predators arrested in my community in recent months for soliciting minors. I would recommend that Katie's story be read in every Internet household with kids, whether girls or boys.

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Summary: Domain Name Hijacking
Review: The author and publishers used a domain name that doesnt belong to them. (It never has and was easily checked.) The real owner of Katie.com has had her life made miserable by this book.

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Summary: What All Readers Should Be Aware of...
Review: First of all, I was impressed by this book, and recommend it to any parent or teenager. As someone who is exactly the same age as Katie Tarbox, this books speaks to me, and I can well recall my own experiences at that age, the vulnerabilities, and imagine what it must be like to live in that position.

But I am disturbed by the number of readers who called this book a 'sob story' and Katie 'stupid' either because this young woman had the courage to write her story, or because she was wealthy, or because she was not raped. Also those who slap her down for her writing style are also over the top.

1) 1995 was a different world for 13-year-olds. The Internet was new, a novelty to our generation, and it is all too believable that an intelligent, well-educated girl with absent or even mostly-normal parents could fall into a pedophile's trap. After all, 13-year-olds give never-have-I-ever information to friends face-to-face all the time. The predator's sexual questions might not have seemed that dangerous to a naive child. That's the essence of childhood, the reason she is the victim, NOT to be blamed. I am appalled by the number of people who called her stupid--on this review board alone!

2) The readers who criticized this girl's writing style and her "cashing in" on her experience are out of line and off the mark. For one thing, teenagers' lack of experience often does lead to certain grammatical/syntax errors that in no way diminishes the weight of their message to an INTELLIGENT reader. And another thing, this young girl did a HUGE service to children and parents by telling her story and publishing it, and she deserves to be recognized for it, not condemned. The idea that a victim of sexual molestation must suffer and recover in silence is outdated and sick.

3) Speaking of outdated and sick, the people who would belittle Katie because she "was not raped" should ask themselves if they would feel the same way if it were their child? If it were their child kissed and necked by a 41-year-old, if it were their child fondled under her clothes and pushed onto a bed by a predator? Would they still say, "you weren't raped, get over it?" I think not. Those who think it makes a difference are incredibly insensitive.

All in all, the naysayers have shown a profound ignorance of youth, the internet culture, and humanity in general, while Katie Tarbox deserves nothing but praise for the way she has chosen to recover from her ordeal. She has done so in a way that serves as a profound warning to teenagers and parents everywhere.

Oh, and about the domain name issue: it has nothing to do with the substance of this book. That Jones woman is the one who is printing "sob stories." I'm not saying she should give up her domain name, but the whining posted on her website was silly. SHE is the one who should get over her "ordeal." And the people who condemn Katie Tarbox for using the title "Katie.com" ought to remember that a teenaged girl writing her experience is unlikely to be familiar with Copyright Law and domain names. I thought it was a rather profound title, unlike the one it was replaced with.

In closing: Go Katie! Write on, and don't let the naysayers discourage you (but judging by what you've already overcome, somehow I doubt you will.)

Rating:
Summary: Important Book, But Do Not Buy This Book
Review: The publishers changed the title of the book from "girl.com" to "katie.com" weeks before publishing because "girl.com" was an adult site. Apparently, if it negatively affected their sales, they could be convinced to market a different title.

Unfortunatley, they picked a name "katie.com" that they do not own, nor have the offered to purchase it, nor have the offered to change their marketing scheme or title. Imagine if Penguin named their next book "The Rapist's # was ###-###-####" where your number was on the title of the book. Wouldn't that be horrible? Wouldn't you hope that a huge company would have the decency to do something about it, even now?

I know that lawyers at Penguin make all the decisions, but some of you are probably nice people. Some of you remember the difference between what you can get away with, and what is right. And what about the people who make the decisions. I am the owner of an IT firm here in Los Angeles and sometimes the right decision isn't the one my books, accountants, or legal counsel tells me. That's the reason I am the owner, the founder, the spirit behind the company. How difficult would it be to slap a huge disclaimer on the front cover of the book. You are telling me this wouldn't actually attract interest in a 4 year old release?

Allan Lane founded that company almost forty years ago. He printed books that were controversial and aided the public good. I bet if someone brought this to his attention, even if they couldn't enact change themselves, he would appreciate that type of leadership and initiative.

I pay people to surround me with reality checks. In the end, it's my vision that matters, not my pride. Anyone who assits me in making my reputation stronger and more valuable, they become a stronger and more valuable asset to me themselves.

I would never purport to give anonymous advice.

[...]
Happy 2005 to all.
God Bless the Tsunami victims.