Pop­u­lar lit­er­a­ture is filled with the sto­ries of self-sac­ri­fic­ing moth­ers brave­ly tend­ing to their chal­leng­ing chil­dren. Kather­ine Elli­son offers a dif­fer­ent kind of tale. Short­ly after Elli­son, an award-win­ning inves­tiga­tive reporter, and her twelve-year-old son, Buzz, were both diag­nosed with atten­tion deficit/​hyperactivity dis­or­der, she found her­self mak­ing such a hash of par­ent­ing that the two of them faced three alter­na­tives: he’d go to board­ing school; she’d go AWOL; or they’d make it their full-time job to work out their prob­lems togeth­er. They decid­ed to search for a solu­tion while Elli­son inves­ti­gat­ed what gen­uine relief, if any, might be found in the con­fus­ing array of goods sold by the mod­ern men­tal health industry.

The num­ber of diag­noses for child­hood atten­tion and behav­ior issues is explod­ing, leav­ing par­ents and edu­ca­tors on a con­fus­ing chase to find the best kind of help for each child. Buzz, a page-turn­er of a mem­oir, brings much relief. It is immense­ly engag­ing, laugh-out-loud fun­ny, and hon­est — and packed with help­ful insights.