Psychiatric Tales : eleven graphic stories about mental illness
Darryl Cunningham
Darryl Cunningham is himself a sufferer of mental illness as he has had to combat depression and anxiety through many of his childhood and adult years. His time working as a health care provider and on psychiatric wards – and his own life’s experiences – serve as the basis for these stories. Stories of dementia (young and old), self-mutilation, depression, and personal disorders are connected not by sadness and struggle, but by hope, and Cunningham clearly is putting a call out for support and understanding from the general public for mental health sufferers.
In the chapter about famous people with mental illnesses, I even learned about a musical artist named Nick Drake who sounds like his sound might be pretty interesting, but who didn’t become known until well after he committed suicide at aged 26. Even the slightest stories in this collection can serve as reminders that one never knows what the future holds, for better or for worse. It might be worth it to struggle through the bad to get a chance to experience the good. Recommended to teens and adults with an interest in mental illness and those who want to help promote the importance of being nonjudgmental and open-minded.
family
Micol Ostow
Melinda Jensen left home at seventeen to make her way to San Francisco, the city of freedom and acceptance. What she found was a bench on the street to sleep on, and that’s where Henry finds her. Henry is able to offer Mel the one thing she craves the most deeply. She’s never had a real family, only a mom who wasn’t all that interested in being a mom, and her mom’s boyfriend who molested and berated her most of her life. Henry takes her in, brings her to his home, introduces her to her new “sisters,” one of which becomes her confidant, her comfort, and her legs to stand on. How would Mel survive without them?
But Henry has more grand powerful plans in this world than just being a father, brother, and lover to Mel and her sisters. And when Mel is included in on a murderous plan, she becomes more and more confused about what it means to be part of a family. The language of family is gorgeous, and the book is based loosely on the Manson Family murders of 1969. The story is told in episodic verse, tying in elements of poetry with pure emotion, and the characters are purely original. The format and the topic are sure to draw in the interests of a broad variety of high school readers.
Numbers
Rachel Ward
Jem’s had it pretty rough. She was only six years old when she found her mother dead from a heroin overdose. She had always known that her mother’s addiction was more important than love and family, but it was only this moment that Jem learned something new: She could see the date of her mother’s death in her eyes. She has always seen a string of 8 numbers when she looks at people, and for a while, she thought that everyone could. Now she knows that she must keep the numbers a secret . . . Until she meets and gets close to Spider. After living the last of her 16 years in and out of foster situations, Spider is the first person she allows herself to connect with. Spider is laid back, adventurous, thoughtful, and just as damaged in a lot of ways as she is. Spider also only has three months left to live. When an unpredictable event takes place and Spider and Jem are accused of being involved with a terrorist attack, they decide that the only way to live their lives is to escape to a better place. But, as Jem knows, the outcomes of their lives can’t always be controlled.
Recommended to all adventurous readers, and in particular to those intrigued by mystery, romance, and the unknown. The sequel, Numbers: The Chaos, is available, and third in the series, Numbers: Infinity, is just out!
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Katherine Vasilik, A/YA Librarian
J. F. Kennedy Library
Piscataway, NJ
telephone: 732-463-1633 x6
email: kvasilik@piscatawaylibrary.org or kate_thelibrarian@yahoo.com
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