Toronto youth worker Kate Scowen has written a primer about depression and associated mental health issues for teens. This book doesn’t need to be read in any particular order, and a depressed adolescent – who might be unable to sit down and concentrate long enough to read a book or even a chapter – can easily open it to any page and get useful information. Short, readable sections contain large amounts of information in a variety of formats: bulleted lists, charts, quotes from young people, and prose.

The first two introductory chapters seem scattered and are unlikely to be particularly attractive to a depressed teen, but the rest of the book is much more grounded and accessible. There are chapters on anxiety, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, self-mutilation, treatment, and suicide. The overall tone of the book is optimistic, but a number of statements could be misinterpreted by teens to mean that depression and other mental health issues will be lifelong problems, which is not necessarily the case.

The cover art is evocative, but neither the young adult nor the adolescent in my household thought the cartoon-like illustrations added anything to the book. Throughout the book, a “check it out” icon points to a resource section in the back pages, which contains descriptions of recommended readings, including both books and websites (disclosure: my book, Helping Your Teen Overcome Depression, is mentioned here). A second resource section lists all the references for the book by chapter.