A remarkable true life story, powerful, well written and interesting, it teaches us to never stop asking questions and the damage caused by lying to children. Tracy should be proud of herself for living out her dreams and becoming a writer.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A compelling portrait of a family, a family ordinary in some ways, but when examined more closely, quite extraordinary.

A story about memory, and critical thinking and trauma. About how services get things so terribly wrong and the devastating and long-lasting effects this can have.

Tracy King writes beautifully about her family, and the love and warmth her and her sister felt, despite living in extreme poverty.

On a night that should have been a celebration, something terrible happened and this was to change her forever. Her story tells us how she eventually came to think and question the past, and in doing so, face the future with more hope and resilience.

a detailed and heartbreaking look at the traumatic childhood of tracy king, it nevertheless is written with humour and warmth. i read a bit about one of the main points afterwards and it made it even more affecting. would recommend

Really interesting read about how th education system can fail some children and how other forms of education are still as valid. Also the impact of trauma for everyone involved

A very good read, although I'm usually more inclined to memoirs from someone in the public eye and this feels strange delving into the private life of a family who are just that, private.
Takes of growing up and dealing with various obstacles, some of which are run off the mill type incidents and events which many families go through and some, one particular incident, which relatively few will have to deal with.
A very interesting insight into how the author dealt with these trials and tribulations.

This is a book of many parts and, ultimately, the title is a good one. Whilst I think that stylistically there were some weaker areas (almost verbatim repetitions, uneven exploration of key elements in the narrative...) this memoir is enlightening and compelling. Its strong didactic slant is new one to me as neither the other two books it made me think of (Janette Winterson's "Oranges are not the Only Fruit" and Andrea Ashworth's "Once in a House on Fire") have it, being far more literary if equally centred in an obviously intelligent girl. The very personal event that triggers and also illustrates the "critical thinking" "learning to think" central tenet of this life story and its exploration is a truly revealing example which encompasses deep societal and private concerns so complex that answers are imperfect by definition. "I may be wrong" is a key mantra for King and in today's culture, a salutary reminder.

This is a memoir that has much to offer for discussion (in the classroom, bookclub or within oneself) from mental health, poverty, to education, serendipity... critical thinking!

This was a very interesting read and as Tracy King herself states throughout the book, an essential one to understand better a huge part of the british society and life in the late 70s and 80s and the working class struggles in general. It's quite extraordinary how many things went wrong for Tracy, who eventually managed to overcome a lot of trauma and pain and forge her own path. The themes of poverty, school refusal, alcoholism, the sudden death of her father and all that came along and as a result of that, the role of religion when all else fails and the non-existent support from the government all created the perfect storm for her. She does an excellent job at travelling us back in time and bringing to life the estate life and the everyday struggles all those families faced and very much like Shuggie Bain, your hearts breaks at the injustice and the lack of opportunity for adults and children alike.
The element of the importance of critical thinking runs throughout the book and Tracy King invites us to explore the reasons she was forced to think the way she did as a child, shaping a reality and sense of the world he later forced herself to challenge and in more than one ways discredit. But equally, it encourages us to consider our own biases and predispositions when it comes to our own way of perceiving and understanding the world and judging what is happening to us and around us.

I was really enjoying this heart rendering story , until I became ill & wasn't able to continue reading & by the time I could the Book had sadly expired & been Archived so my sincerest apologies to the author Tracy King . #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #FB, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

This book was very relatable, I grew up in The Midlands in similar circumstances.

I enjoyed the writing and the journey the author took me on.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I wouldn't say I like reviewing biographies, especially autobiographies. Who am I to ‘review’ aka judge someone’s life?
The book was well written.

This is a reallly great memoir and very well written. Despite not knowing the author, this is definitely one of the best memoirs I've ever read (and I've read a lot!) Tracy's story is scary, shocking, sad, infuriating but also heartwarming. A very unique memoir which I will highly recommend to others. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book.

Everyone's story is unique and I think it is a privilege to read about someone else's.

Tracey King covers some massive themes within her memoir. The conversion to born again Christian, the death of her father and how Social Services worked against the family.

Well written and informative it is good to hear that Tracy has ultimately 'won' at life.

Even though I have read various non-fiction books, I always question whether it’s morally correct to review a memoir. Who am I to give feedback on someone’s life experiences? ‘Learning to Think’ is a prime example of this reading.

The writing style is effortless to read, although the topics covered not so much. I empathised with King and her childhood memories, and my heart ached for her for over two-thirds of this book. There is so much she has gone through. Writing this in the precise way she has must have taken courage and inner strength. Social status and poverty are fluidly woven between the main events discussed within the pages of this.

I would recommend this new release to fans of this genre. Although it’s a rough ride, it’s well worth sticking with!

I wanted to read this book after reading a wonderful article by Tracy in The Guardian about the death of her father, who was killed when she was just 12 years old. It referred to the book and I thought it would be interesting and if the style of the article was anything to go by, a very well written book. Learning To Think was everything I was anticipating and so much more. I like to read autobiographies which are about ‘normal’ people (as opposed to ‘famous’ people) who have had something extraordinary happen in their lives. Tracy is such a person.
She had a relatively ordinary working class upbringing, with some extraordinary occurrences (I won’t note those as they are for the reader to find out). Then, at the age of 12, her world is turned upside down when her father is killed. He was only 44 years old.
I loved how the title of the book, Learning To Think, is derived (again, I will not state this, as it is such an important part of the book I would not want to spoil it for the reader).
Highly recommend this book.
I wish Tracy and her family all of the very best for the future. Remarkable women.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's always difficult to review a memoir as they're so personal. There were parts I really connected with and parts that left me a little flat. I resonated with the poverty that Tracy sent through with her family and though tough I felt the nostalgia and love she felt for her family.

It really opened my eyes to how stupid social services were in the 80s and how people just didn't know what to do with trauma.

Some of the book - the religion, the friendships and Tracy's deep connection with her mum felt like they could have been touched on in a deeper sense.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this powerful and heartbreaking memoir. Tracey deeply explains her childhood, growing up in poverty on a council estate. They tried everything in their power to keep the family afloat whilst each going through trauma individually.

This memoir really showed how little help there was towards children in need and how punishing children for their mental health struggles is the last thing that should be done. Tracey beautifully described how her thoughts matured as she grew up, but also explained why she thought those things as a young child. The book touches on so much and is a powerful testament to Tracy and the King families life. A heartbreaking life story that is powerful for everyone to read and understand how families in poverty really lived and how the UK community came together, or didn't, in times of struggles.

This astonishing and brave memoir held me from the first page. Tracy King recounts her childhood experiences - her alcoholic father, unable to keep a job, her agoraphobic mother and a forced move to a council house in a new suburb away from close family. Money always tight yet a close family bond between her, her sister and their parents, even when her mother becomes increasing obsessed with religion and her sister is sent to a boarding school.
When her father dies suddenly in a seemingly violent attack by a local boy, her world shatters. Tracy and her mother become co-dependent and Tracy struggles to stay in school, cutting the one lifeline that might give her a better future.
This is a heartbreaking memoir, and also deeply shocking to find how a family can fall between the cracks in society so easily. When they do start to thrive it is more through luck; a determined therapist or a change in education.
As Tracy uses adult education to develop herself she also looks back on the events of her father’s death - shockingly it was not as she had been given to understand and she is forced to re-evaluate her family and her childhood once more.

"The more oppressed you feel, the more you turn to your community...you realise you can only be truly understood by the church."

This was a complex and hard-hitting book primarily structured around the traumatic circumstances surrounding the author's father's death, and the other factors in her life affecting her childhood such as her born-again Christian faith. Personally, due to my own religious leanings and experiences, King's searching look at the power of organised religion was the most fascinating part of this book. In the vein of [book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit|15055], the reader learns how even a small religious community can exert great influence, for better or for worse, and what this might look like for a child who hadn't known anything different.
My only critique is that as we reached King's later adolescence and her foray into the thinking of spiritualism, there was less and less detail in comparison to the discussions of the church in the first-half. It would have perhaps been interesting to see more of a comparison there.
A very interesting life-story, with powerful messages about class and community in the UK.

Tracy King writes so eloquently about a life time of trauma that it seems unbelievable that this could have happened to one person. What is incredibly believable is the effect that poverty had on her family, and her excellent way of threading her story with the fact that a child in a middle class family would have been treated very differently to how her and her sister were treated. Learning to Think shows how a normal family life can easily descend into complete chaos when the circumstances allow it. I read a lot of memoir, and I must admit that this one was very hard going at times, but having finished it, I would highly recommend.

This is a book with an unusual opening chapter in that the author Tracy King, aged 12, is being exorcised of demons by two male members of her church. It seems to work and then she introduces the reader is introduced to her family; the Kings. Mike and Jackie, her parents and her older sister Emily. They were a working class family based in the Midlands around Birmingham. Tracy remembers her childhood as being happy despite her parents experiencing money worries and debt. The house that they had worked so hard to buy was repossessed and they ended up living on a council estate. Jackie became agoraphobic although she did manage to break free of it in later life. Mike worked abroad in Saudi Arabia and became an alcoholic. But he did try and control it and attend Alcoholics Anonymous. They encouraged both of their daughters although they became school refusers after being bullied. There were books in the household, games and in 1979 they also had computers. Mike was an engineer and loved to set them logic puzzles. He was trying to set up his own business despite money being tight. Tracy paints a vivid picture of hiding from the ‘tally man’ when credit payments are due.
And then Jackie is approached on the street by a local born again Christian and the family become converted into a religious way of life, even Mike. They all undergo baptism and the church becomes central to their lives. And then came the cataclysmic event that changed everything – the death of Mike at 44 and its aftermath.
This was a fascinating story to read as the author writes so well about working class life and how poverty or even ‘just getting by’ can limit life chances by making ambitions almost inaccessible. Other people make decisions for you as when Social Services take Emily at almost twelve against her will into a psychiatric hospital for refusing school. She then goes into a boarding school and lives a different life from the rest of the family. The charity football match in aid of a fund for Mike that the family knows nothing about and no hope of rehousing after Mike’s death. They just have to go on living on the estate. It’s the lack of control in working class lives that can be difficult.
At 16, Tracy decides to have no more ‘school or the church’ and embarks on further education. She and her sister were obviously determined to rise above their limitations and the title of the book refers to her learning to think for herself. In a second hand bookshop she finds a copy of Carl Sagan, ‘The Demon Haunted world’ and she uses it to make sense of the world and what has happened. She had already tried religion, the supernatural and conspiracy theories. None of them had given her the answers that she was looking for.
Then she makes her boldest decision in Chapters 26-27 when she decides to find out what really happened to Mike on that fateful evening. Tracy soon finds out that the version of events that the family were given were not correct and that she didn’t know everything about her father. This was the most powerful part of the book for me as I thought that it was such a brave decision to make and I could understand her wish to at last know everything.
I would have liked a line or two about Jackie and Emily’s current lives but perhaps they did not want to be included. But this was a powerful, uplifting memoir as I come from the same background and as Nile Rogers once put it ‘I’ve been swimming upstream all my life.’
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.