Product Description

A frank, streetwise Our Bodies, Our Selves for young men and women. What's the best way to minimize a hangover? Is it normal to have sex without experiencing an orgasm? How can you tell if a friend of yours is suffering from an eating disorder? Does smoking pot have long-term consequences? Does Seasonal Affective Disorder really exist? These are the questions young people are asking .... and until now, there's been no reliable book that has provided sensible, honest, and comforting answers specifically for this audience. The Go Ask Alice Book of Answers is a groundbreaking guide that mines the best material from the eponymous award-winning Web site. From sex and relationships to alcohol and drugs to fitness and nutrition, this comprehensive handbook is the first of its kind to provide much-needed information for young adults who cannot get reliable or anonymous information from conventional channels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326532 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Amazon.com
Was it a one-night stand or true love? What are the symptoms of chlamydia? How do I know if my drinking is out of control? While questions like these may be a parent's worst nightmare, they weigh heavily on the minds of today's teens and twentysomethings. Thankfully, The "Go Ask Alice" Book of Answers has come to the rescue, providing straightforward, nonjudgmental, comprehensive answers to the toughest, most embarrassing questions teens (and adults) have about their sexual, emotional, and physical health. Inspired by Columbia University's award-winning and hugely popular Q&A Web site, this essential book is packed with answers to questions initially posed online. The university's health service staff has collaborated to ensure that each topic--from how to kiss to the effects of LSD--is given candid, educated attention in an easy-to-digest Q&A format. Queries posed to "Dear Alice" are answered with humor, understanding, and a complete lack of didacticism. A thorough list of resources is included, providing telephone numbers and Internet addresses for related health organizations, as well as directions for where to look on the Go Ask Alice Web site for more information on the immense variety of subjects. With this excellent book in hand, older teens and college students will be better prepared for the journey to adulthood. And grown-ups would benefit as well from the wealth of information contained in these pages. (Ages 15 and older) --Brangien Davis

From Publishers Weekly
Go Ask Alice, an information service originally available only to Columbia University students but later accessible to others through its Web site, takes book form in this eye-opening collection of questions and answers. The queries are representative of those e-mailed by anonymous visitors to the Go Ask Alice Web site. Responses are from experienced health-care providers and professional health educators. The special value of this work is the personal nature of the questions?they are often ones many people would be afraid to ask or wouldn't know whom to ask?and the positive, sympathetic nature of the responses. Topics includes relationships, sexuality (anatomy, physiology and sexual response), sexual health (reproduction, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases), emotional health, fitness and nutrition, alcohol, nicotine and other drugs, and general health. Whether about nose piercing or sniffing lighter fluid, from a worried lesbian or anxious bulemic, all questions are taken seriously, treated respectfully and given straightforward, nonjudgmental answers. Some are marked with an "R," indicating that more information is to be found in back-of-the-book sources, which often include Web sites and e-mail addresses. A word to parents of the college-bound: don't let them leave home without it.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The Go Ask Alice web site is a popular source of health information for young adults, more than a half-million of whom send anonymous inquiries about sex, mental health, nutrition, drugs, and relationships to the site each week. Professional health educators from Columbia University's health education program provide accurate, nonjudgmental answers that encourage young people to learn about and care for their bodies while developing the necessary skills to become healthy adults. This book addresses an assortment of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) organized by subject, e.g., relationships, sexuality, and emotional health. The extensive resource guide lists organizations, web sites, books, and films for each subject. Broader in scope than Michael J. Basso's The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality (LJ 4/15/97), this book is highly recommended for all public libraries and consumer health and young adult collections.?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Kids, sex, life -- they all gotta come together somehow
At www.goaskalice.columbia.edu, there is one of the best sources for advice on sex, relationships, and health for people ages 14 and up. This book is the print version.

It has nothing to do with the adolescent potboiler written by Beatrice Sparks; its information on drugs and sex is technical, explicit, and meant to give answers, not scare people. The gamut of advice given runs from flirting to penis size to the effects of various drugs on the body to urinary tract infections, and it's delivered with humor and understanding, without the judgementalism that seems to be the case in many more traditional books.

While I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who hasn't hit their 13th birthday yet, this book is an antidote for prudishness and the information vacuum far too many young people live in, and in a world where basic information on sex and life can often be hard to find or heavily polluted by unnecessary moralism, this book can help ease fears and educate the uneducated in a way that scare stories and sermons can't.

a great health resource
Go Ask Alice! refers to the website of the same name maintained by Columbia University. It is a forum for college students to ask about nutrition, exercise, symptoms, general illnesses, mental health, STDs, sexual relationships, friendships, etc., mostly in the context of adjusting to living on their own for the first time.

This book is a compilation of all that great advice and the letters that inspired it. I have found this is a good book for high school kids as well, as many of them are concerned about the same topics.

Excellent factual information
This book fills a definite need for adolescents. It presents the facts, not fallacy, to all of the questions they have that parents and other caregivers may be too embarrassed to talk about. It is from an extremely reputable source (Columbia University), and is readable and accessible to the average teen. Kudos to the people who put together "The Go Ask Alice Book of Answers".