Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Newbery Honor middle grade novel Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House, 2022) delves into the tumultuous inner struggles of Iveliz, a seventh-grader, as she grapples with a myriad of emotional challenges and her mental illness. In this poignant free verse poetry novel, Arango gives Iveliz a realistically confused voice that resonates
The graphic novel memoir Stitches by David Small (W.W. Norton, 2009) haunts the reader with stories from David’s troubled childhood in stark black, white, and gray illustrations. David’s childhood seems oppressive, and the variety of perspectives that David uses to show the seas of faces around him gives an added feel of overwhelm that correlates
The Gray by Chris Barron (Feiwel & Friends, June 2023) tells the story of a young teenager with anxiety that experiences panic attacks. During his forced device-free vacation in the country with his aunt, Sasha finds his own confidence. His trip into the country becomes one of self-discovery as he makes new friends and faces
A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner (Aladdin, May 2023) is a middle-grade novel in poetry about an overweight boy struggling with bullying, his weight, and a growing eating disorder. Told in first person and accompanied by emotional sketches, A Work in Progress shares the spare thoughts of a sixth-grade boy who has struggled with
OCDaniel by Wesley King is a much needed added addition to Young Adult collections, as it puts a frequently taboo subject (mental illness) at the center of the story. OCDaniel is about a middle school boy suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but he does not quite know what it is. He feels progressively frustrated with
Nest by Esther Ehrlich (Random House Children’s Books; published today!) is an emotionally charged novel about a young girl facing stark change after her mother develops a serious disease. Naomi, “Chirp” to her family and friends, is a bird-loving sixth grader on Cape Cod in the early 1970s. Her life is full of nature and
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929). Some books are nearly impossible to explain in words, and The Sound and the Fury is one of them. You must experience it. It is narrated by three siblings in three different years in the early 1900s, one of whom is a mentally challenged man, Benjy, who has no
“The Horla” is the term for the invisible ghost-like creature that haunts the unnamed narrator in Guy de Maupassant’s short story of the same name (written 1887). Maupassant’s story is a journal of this man’s decent into madness. Maupassant captures panic in a real way, and the ending is simply wonderful. When I first read
Yesterday evening I returned home from my classics book club meeting very sad. We read Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and when I last read it, I remember wishing I could read and discuss with other classics readers. My classics reading group (last year, a total of four of us) agreed to give it a
Last year, I read The Stranger by Albert Camus (L’Étranger, published 1942, translated from French by Matthew Ward), and the book struck me as odd and a bit disturbing given the themes. Overwhelmingly, the story seemed to say that life is meaningless. I read it again this summer for my book club, and I think
In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf captures a woman’s joys and frustrations in a single day by revealing her thought processes. Although some other character’s thoughts are captured as well, it was Clarissa Dalloway that I related to.
In the best-seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, Daniel Goleman explores emotions and the cause of emotions from the perspective of physiology, psychology, and human and child development. While Emotional Intelligence helped me reconsider my default reactions and emotions in various situations, I can’t really say I enjoyed listening to this
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