Poetry Review-STOP PRETENDING

1. Bibliography

Sones, Sonya. 1999. Stop Pretending: what happened when my big sister went crazy. New York: HarperTeen. ISBN 0064462188

2. Plot Summary

In Sonya Sones' first verse novel, she paints the very real struggle of a young thirteen year old girl dealing with her nineteen year old sister's mental breakdown. In a series of poems based on real events in the author's life, the reader travels with the young girl through the horror and denial of her sister's condition, her sadness for the family that has been fractured, her shame and fear that she could go crazy too, and finally her acceptance and healing. Sones captures the voice of a young teenager trying to navigate the world of boyfriends and slumber parties while her family is falling apart.

3. Critical Analysis

Sonya Sones has written an incredibly important book that speaks with raw emotion of grief and loss during a very critical time of life. The succession of poems flow flawlessly and really document the author's progression of emotion and thoughts through these tragic circumstances. The poems do not rhyme and the rhythm is varied but the message and meaning of the poems supersede. The poems range from irrational to reflective, realistically portraying scattered thoughts and emotions inside a person's head. One poem describes a string of highly unlikely dramatic events and ends it all with a promise that if even if all these things happen "I swear I won't go crazy." Another poem about a picture the author has drawn in art class is heavy with symbolism: "I am drawing my sister/with saucers for eyes/...I am drawing my mother/with zippers for eyes/...I am drawing my father /with windows for eyes/...I am drawing myself/without any eyes/at all." The range of emotion in this book is astounding. There is shame and fear of the stigma of mental illness, there is anger at her sister, grief and sadness over the loss of her sister and family, the desire to just be a kid, and hope for healing. There is an author's note at the end of the book that describes the background for these poems and the real experiences that inspired them along with a resource list of several mental health organizations. Told through the observations and struggles of a thirteen year old, young adults with any experience of loss and disruption will be able to identify with this beautifully written novel in verse.

4. Review Excerpts

School Library Journal-"An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness-its stigma, its realities, and its affect on family members. All of the emotions and feelings are here, the tightness in the teen's chest when thinking about her sibling in the hospital, her grocery list of adjectives for mental illness, and the honest truth in the collection's smallest poem, "I don't want to see you./I dread it./There./I've said it."

Kirkus Reviews-"The form, a story-in-poems, fits the story remarkably well, spotlighting the musings of the 13-year-old narrator, and pinpointing the emotions powerfully."

5. Connections

This book spoke to me in a profound way. I lost my nineteen year old sister in a tragic accident when I was fourteen. I was surprised by the emotions these poems brought up even though my loss was different than those of the author's. Anger, sadness, feeling different from peers, and trying to recapture innocence is just a few of the feelings I could relate to. The thoughts and emotions of the grief process seen through an adolescent's eyes was dead on. This book touches the humanity of many of life's difficult trials.

*This book could spark a discussion with older students on mental illness and the issues surrounding it as well as experiences with loss (divorce, death, etc.)

*Students could be asked to create a poem that would fit in this collection or continue it.

Other books by Sonya Sones:

What my Mother Doesn't Know. ISBN 0689855532

What my Girlfriend Doesn't Know. ISBN 0689876033

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. ISBN 1416907882

Other books for young adults dealing with mental illness:

Simon, Clea. Mad House: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings. ISBN 0140274340

Mccormick, Patricia. Cut. ISBN 0439324599

Hopkins, Ellen. Impulse. ISBN 1416903577

Kayson, Susanna. Girl Interrupted. ISBN 0679746048

Wutzel, Elizabeth. Prozac Nation. ISBN 1573229628

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. ISBN 0061148512

Greenberg, Joanne. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. ISBN 0451160312