17 & Gone

by Nova Ren Suma

Summary:
Lauren can see the missing girls. She knows they are trying to tell her something. They want her to find them, to solve their cases, because they are gone. The only link between them is that they are 17, just like Lauren. As she follows the clues that they leave behind for her, she has to wonder, is she next? Or perhaps she is already gone.

Review:
17 & Gone is not a story about the missing girls. It's a story about a girl descending into schizophrenia. The girls she is seeing aren't real, neither are the clues, but no one around her recognizes that. What was most powerful about the book is how long it took anyone to realize that something was really wrong with Lauren. So much was dismissed as just odd, or a one time occurrence, just like it would be if you were seeing it in real life. Ultimately Lauren gets the help she needs, but it's interesting to see the progression it takes for her to get it. Definitely realistic in it's portrayal, this is a book for teens interested in psychological realistic fiction.

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Level: 9th Grade

The Silence of Murder

by Dandi Daley Mackall

Summary:
What if your brother had been accused of murder? Would you stand by him? Accuse him? Stay to the side and do nothing? Hope knows that her brother didn't murder Coach Johnson. But her brother has always had  problems, developmental ones that were just a part of his life. But now those problems are what has caused the town to turn against him, and his unwillingness to talk about the events of that night might result in him going to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Unless Hope can find a way to unearth the truth.

Review:
This was an excellent read about a girl who's never been given a break, a family that has been torn apart so many times they don't know how to stand together. Its realistic portrayl about how mental disbilities are misunderstood by those who are scared is well done. It's a whodunit with a great twist at the end, but at it's core its about the staying power of family in terrible circumstances. Definitely a good read for those who like murder mysteries.

Genre: Fiction
Age Level: 8th Grade

Crash and Burn

by Michael Hassan

Summary:
Crash didn't set out that morning to be a hero. He didn't intend to be the person who saved 1000 people from his classmate David. He wasn't even planning on being at school. But David had other plans, plans that were the direct result of their ten years of knowing each other.  Plans that dated even back to their first meeting in elementary school, to their first escapade where David earned his nickname Burn. Told from Crash's perspective and alternating between before and after the event, he retells the events that led up to the moment it was just them, Crash and Burn, surrounded by bombs and guns, each trying to out think the other.

Reviews:
Crash and Burn didn't grab me at first, but by the end I was reading it as quickly as I could to find out what happens. Crash is a brash character who goes through life like a bull in a china shop, but at the same time is someone you really want to be friends with. Reflecting on his relationship with David, each story reveals a little more of how they both ended up in a room together. The book does not focus as much on the attempted massacre itself, but instead on how everything built up to it, and how it changed Crash's life afterwards. The book is well written and engaging, but due to the content (drugs, drinking, sex, suicide, and an attempted school massacre) is probably best for older teens.

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Level: 10th Grade

Breathe My Name

by R. A. Nelson

Summary:
Frances has worked hard to forget her past. Her parents, her friends, her life now are what matters. But when she receives a letter telling her her birth mother has been released from jail, she is forced to remember the past. The past where she had 3 little sisters. The past where her mother murdered them, and tried to murder her too.  It was only luck that someone heard her yelling, luck that she survived where her sisters didn't.  But when her mother writes to her, telling Frances she needs to finish what was started, Frances realizes the only way she is going to be able to move on from her past is to confront it face to face.

Review:
A fast paced psychological thriller, Breathe My Name is a hard hitting book about one girls struggle to move on from a horrific event.  The book does an excellent job of discussing mental illness in relation to the mother and the crimes she commits. The reader is left guessing her motives for contacting Frances until the very end, where a plot twist upends most of the readers assumptions. It's a great book for teens who like thrillers, but best for slightly more mature teens since the subject is pretty dark. 

Genre: Psychological Thriller
Age Level: 9th Grade

Breathless

by Jessica Warman

Summary:
Katie never meant to lie about her brother.  But it's so much easier to be the new girl with a brother who died rather than the new girl with the brother who is crazy and is in and out of mental hospitals. Or the new girl with the brother who tried to kill her father, or might have killed a hospital worker.  So instead she lies and moves on with her life.  She's captain of the swim team and has a great boyfriend and friends.  But while things are great on the surface, when you are hiding a big lie it's bound to come out sometime.

Review:
While Katie's brother is in the book quite a bit, the book itself is not about him. it instead shows the devastation that having a person with mental illness can have on the family (especially when it's an illness that manifests violently).  Katie chooses to hide any association with her brother, and we can see throughout the book how guilty and ashamed it makes her feel.  It's an interesting look at mental illness from a person who is not suffering from the diseases themselves but is suffering from the aftereffects and from being a bit ignored by her parents because she is not the problem child.  Good read for older tweens.

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Level: 9th Grade

The Killer's Cousin

by Nancy Werlin

Summary:
David was hoping for a chance to start over when he moved in with his uncle, aunt and his 11 year old cousin Lily.  A chance to be around people who didn't know about the trial and his acquittal.  People who didn't know that he had been suspected of killing his girlfriend.  But he is not the only person trying to hide their past.  The house he's now living in holds its fair share of secrets.  Secrets which might not only destroy him, but his whole family.

Review: 
The Killer's Cousin is a psychological thriller which captivates the reader from the beginning.  The crime David was just acquitted of as the book starts is revealed in pieces through the book.  His sinister cousin Lily is surprisingly disturbing and worrisome.  The reader finds themselves wondering just how much of what is happening is real or how much might just be in the heads of the characters.  It's a book which will appeal to older tweens.

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Level: 7th-8th Grade

The Illustrated Mum

The Illustrated Mum

Author: Jacqueline Wilson

Publisher: London : Corgi Yearling, 2000.

Plot Description:

            Dolphin’s mum Marigold isn’t like anyone else.  She tends to forget to buy groceries, and spends their money on things they don’t need while forgetting to pay the telephone bill, but Dolphin loves her anyway.  And she has her older sister Star to look after her when her mother forgets.  But when Marigold reuinites with Star’s father, who isn’t Dolphin’s, their lives being to unravel.  When Marigold ends up in the hospital, Dolphin finds herself alone and has to discover what’s really important in a family.

Review:

            This book very examines mental illness from the perspective of a child who doesn’t really understand it.  It shows a young girl who is both protected by an older sister from the harsh realities of the disease, and one who is forced to cope with it head on when her sister leaves for a chance at something better.  It is well written and engaging, especially for girls. 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading level: 5^th-6^th Grade

Reader’s Advisory:

Personal thoughts- an interesting and well written book about being different

Subjects/themes- Family, Mental Illness, Coping

Character names/descriptions-

            Dolphin- dyslexic young girl who struggles with feeling alone

            Star- Dolphin’s protective older sister

            Marigold- Star and Dolphin’s manic depressive mother

            Micky- Star’s father who reappears in her life to offer her a chance at a better one

Annotation: Sometimes being different is great, but sometimes it can just be miserable.