Consuming Kids

Susan Linn is a psychologist at Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston. An award-winning ventriloquist internationally recognized for her pioneering work using puppet therapy with children, she was mentored by the late Fred Rogers.

“This book is a powerful warning and wake-up call about the obvious and subtle ways our consumer culture is deliberately sending messages to our children that are shaping their lives.”—Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund“A splendid book—a call to arms for parents today. Consuming Kids lays out the ingredients of a fight back, giving control to parents and their children. Our children as consumers are being consumed. We can and must take back out parental roles in this media battle.”—T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Harvard University“At last a book that provides the data, the arguments, and the passion that can be mobilized to end marketing to children. Susan Linn is a hero of our times.”–Howard Gardener, author Changing Minds“Barbies for three year olds? Advertising junk food in middle schools? If you’re thinking marketing to kids has gotten out of hand, and are wondering what to do, this book is for you. Susan Linn, one of the nation’s leading opponents of the commercial exploitation of children, has written a compelling and compassionate critique of today’s ‘what will they think of next’ advertising environment, and provided a road map for taking back the culture of childhood.”—Alvin Pouissaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Judge Baker Children’s Center“Linn presents a salient, substantial, and worrying case. She shows how children’s daily lives have been trespassed on evermore by brand names and images. As useful as it is serious, this book is necessary reading for parents in particular.”—Alissa Quart, author of Branded