This book could be a lifeline for survivors and provide insight for others. (Poetry. 13-18)
A teenage girl uses writing to heal from sexual assault and depression in this collection of poems in four parts.
Kaufman, who has an active presence on Instagram as @poeticpoison, dedicates her book to “anyone terrified that it won’t get better.” In Part 1, the narrator is in full crisis mode, searching online for the suicide hotline and answers to questions about depression and anxiety: “I am going stir crazy / inside my skull, / peeling off the wallpaper / with short, bitten nails.” In Part 2, the narrator describes writing as a way to find herself and face what happened to her (“I said I guess, I said / I’m scared, I said if you want to, I said I don’t / think I can do this”). She ponders what her diagnosis of depression and anxiety means for future relationships. In Part 3, she has more help and support: “the wounds have healed / and the scars are fading.” Her emergence from depression (“the sadness isn’t as / comforting as it used to be”) is perhaps most poignant. In Part 4, she speaks of therapy and medication and ends with self-love and the beauty of survival. Debut author Kaufman’s voice is authentic, and her experiences, feelings, and journey toward healing are convincing. Black-and-white illustrations enhance the text.
This book could be a lifeline for survivors and provide insight for others. (Poetry. 13-18)Pub Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-284468-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
This is clearly not unbiased reporting, but it makes a strong case that justice in our legal system does not always fit the...
Porinchak recounts how the legal system fails five teens who commit a serious crime.
The May 22, 1995, brawl in a white suburb of Los Angeles that resulted in the death of one teen and the injury of another is related matter-of-factly. The account of the police investigation, the judicial process, and the ultimate incarceration of the five boys is more passionately argued. Since the story focuses on the teens’ experiences following the brawl, minimal attention is given to Jimmy Farris, who died, although the testimony of Mike McLoren, who survived, is crucial. The book opens with a comprehensive dramatis personae that will help orient readers, and the text is liberally punctuated by quotes drawn from contemporary newspaper and magazine coverage as well as interviews with several of the key figures, including three of the accused. Porinchak argues that the proceedings were influenced by the high-profile 1994 trial and acquittal of the Menendez brothers, and unfounded accusations of gang involvement further clouded the matter. Despite the journalistic style, there is clear intent to elicit sympathy for the five boys involved, three of whom were sentenced to life without parole; of two, the text remarks that “they were numbers now, not humans.”
This is clearly not unbiased reporting, but it makes a strong case that justice in our legal system does not always fit the crime. (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8132-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Necessary for every home, school, and public library.
“This is the story of a girl who lost her voice and wrote herself a new one.”
The award-winning author, who is also a rape survivor, opens up in this powerful free-verse memoir, holding nothing back. Part 1 begins with her father’s lifelong struggle as a World War II veteran, her childhood and rape at 13 by a boy she liked, the resulting downward spiral, her recovery during a year as an exchange student in Denmark, and the dream that gave her Melinda, Speak’s (1999) protagonist. Part 2 takes readers through her journey as a published author and National Book Award finalist. She recalls some of the many stories she’s heard during school visits from boys and girls who survived rape and sexual abuse and calls out censorship that has prevented some speaking engagements. In Part 3, she wraps up with poems about her family roots. The verse flows like powerful music, and Anderson's narrative voice is steady and direct: “We should teach our girls / that snapping is OK, / instead of waiting / for someone else to break them.” The poems range in length from a pair of two-line stanzas to several pages. Readers new to Anderson will find this accessible. It’s a strong example of how lived experience shapes art and an important book for the #MeToo movement.
Necessary for every home, school, and public library. (resources) (Verse memoir. 13-adult)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-670-01210-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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