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STUCK IN TIME

THE TRAGEDY OF CHILDHOOD MENTAL ILNESS

An anecdotal indictment of the system that treats children with mental-health problems, as well as an unpersuasive call for a new order. Gutkind (English/University of Pittsburgh; One Children's Place, 1990, etc.) dubs our institution-centered mental-health system ``absurd,'' contending that its methods aren't based on solid research. He proposes instead an untested model of individualized care based on family preservation, claiming that the need for change is too urgent to wait for research to validate this model's viability. Gutkind's interest in the mental-health system was triggered by the experiences of Daniel, a seriously troubled youth for whom he acted as a Big Brother and whom he watched being bounced from group home to mental hospital to family to the street. To understand the present system, the author sat in with doctors, nurses, social workers, and other staff members of Pittsburgh's Western Psychiatric Institute as they dealt with disturbed adolescents and their families. Individually, these professionals appear well meaning and often kind, but the rigidities of the system render their efforts largely ineffective. Though he includes brief sketches of several patients and their families, Gutkind concentrates on the Scanlons, so devastated by the behavior of their mentally disturbed teenage daughter, Meggan, that they relinquish parental rights over her. Another teenager who catches Gutkind's attention is Terri, diagnosed with multiple disorders, whose eventual commitment to an adult psychiatric hospital seems inevitable. The author intersperses these dismal stories with facts and figures demonstrating the extent of the problem (millions of American children with serious mental problems, but only one-fifth of them receiving any treatment). In conclusion, Gutkind details rather optimistically how his proposed family preservation model might have helped Danny, Meggan, and Terri. Sincere, but offering little comfort to families with disturbed children and, probably, little in the way of realistic solutions.

Pub Date: July 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-8050-1469-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1993

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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