Stop Pretending : What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy - Softcover

Sonya Sones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842550756 ISBN 13: 9781842550755

Publisher: Orion Children's Books, 2002

Synopsis

It happened to Sonya Sones. Her brilliant sequence of poems describes the night her 19-year-old sister suddenly turns into a screaming stranger and is taken away to a psychiatric hospital. She portrays a loving family torn apart by grief; the ordeal of hospital visits; the anxiety of a 13-year-old that her friends will reject her if they find out, or that this could happen to her too; and finally her acceptance that her life has been forever changed.

This stunning book evokes an ordinary teenager's shattered world with powerful intensity. Deeply human and affecting, and very readable, this is an inspirational book that has already won many awards and accolades in the US, and speaks to adults just as much as teenagers.

About this title

Review:

The subtitle of Stop Pretending says it all: "What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy." In a sequence of short, intense poems based on the author's own experiences, a 13-year-old girl suffers through her shifting feelings about her sibling's mental illness. She recalls the terror of the Christmas Eve when Sister was suddenly transformed into a stranger; the horror of visiting Sister in the hospital and finding her rocking on all fours; the fear that her friends will find out; her own worry that she, too, may lose her mind; and her wistful memories of Sister as she was before. More complex emotions are also explored, such as her irrational suspicion that Sister may be deliberately acting crazy, as poignantly expressed in the title poem: "Stop pretending./ Right this minute./ Don't you tell me/ you don't know me./ Stop this crazy act/ and show me/ that you haven't changed./ Stop pretending/ you're deranged." Gradually, as Sister begins to recover, the girl is able to find hope and again take pleasure in her own life. Blank verse is perfect for a story with such heightened emotion, and is a format that has been used with great success in other fine novels for teens, notably the Newbery-award winning Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, and Robert Cormier's boyhood memoir, Frenchtown Summer. Teen readers may even be so inspired as to try their own hand at this challenging but satisfying form. (Ages 10 and older) --Patty Campbell

About the Author:

NEW BOOK GRANTOR Dorie Simmonds Lit Agency

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion Children's Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1842550756
• ISBN 13: 9781842550755
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160