Thank you Netgalley for this review copy.
This book brought back lots of memories of growing up poor but grateful. It was interesting hearing the arguments around what hinders learning and why simply by being poorer you have less ability to teach your children.
I liked the explanations about evidence based thinking but feel the book needed more about this. It also would have been great to have learnt more about how Tracy now uses her learning and develops it further.

Tracy grew up in a poor family in a council estate. She had a traumatic upbringing: first her sister was taken away to cure her fear of going to school, then her dad was murdered.
In this book, Tracy faces her own traumas and seeks the truth.

A book about poverty, how poverty and crime are related and the bias towards people living in poverty. A description of broken Britain.

Like Educated my Tara Westover but set in a British council estate, this memoir is about growing up under the constant stress of poverty, how religious and magical beliefs counteract that stress, and the power of education and ‘learning to think’ to illuminate and elevate. Also how therapy played a critical part in healing from phobias and trauma. Excellent account and observations so relevant to our age.

Ms King grew up in a rather dysfunctional family with her parents and older sister. When still a young child she is beset with tragedy when her father is murdered. Her sister has been taken to a boarding school and her mother has become a born again Christian. The 12 year old Tracy struggles to understand her life full of police and relatives and the weird church people.

As an adult, she starts trying to find out what happened with her father and that, to me, is the strength of this book. Her research and interviews really get the narrative moving quickly and leaves you questioning why we are told things as children that we accept, when as adults we know there’s more to the story.

I wish Ms King a happy and secure future and look forward to seeing what she writes next. She deserves every happiness for overcoming the odds.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

In a previous review, I likened Learning to Think by Tracy King to Educated by Tara Westover. From the summary and the first few chapters, you could be fooled into thinking that these books are similar. They are not. I truly enjoyed both, but I’m not sure that the struggles of Tracy and Tara are comparable. Learning to Think is the story of Tracy King – a girl who grew up on a Birmingham council estate with her devoutly Christian agoraphobic mother. Her older sister was removed from the home by social services, and her father was killed in tragic events. It is her relationships with her family members (co-dependency inherited from her mother, school refusal inherited from her sister, and many traumas and anxieties from the loss of her father) that Tracy spends many years recovering from. Once she leaves the council estate, she is inspired to challenge her long-held views and beliefs and to reassess the events of her childhood. Through this, Tracy finds closure. It is an inspiring book with a lot of its own merit, but I’d warn people not to go in expecting it to be too like Educated, as I think this may leave a reader feeling disappointed. Learning to Think is mild in its themes: mild abuse, addiction, truancy, religion, Educated lives in a world of extremes.

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.