Linda Vigen Phillips

From the book jacket - Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960s, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she’s carrying around a secret: her mother is mentally ill. No one in Laura’s family will talk about her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior, and Laura is confused and frightened. Laura finds some solace in art, but when her mother, also an artist, suffers a breakdown, Laura fears that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps.

My reactions
Told entirely in verse, this is a moving look at one teen’s efforts to come to grips with an issue that no one wants to talk about. I was quickly involved in Laura’s journey. Her own ups and downs as a teenager are fairly typical – new boy takes interest but doesn’t call right away, best friend seems jealous, loves art class, babysitting the kids from hell, etc. But what sets her apart, of course, is her mother’s mental illness – a condition no one speaks about or explains to Laura. So she is left to worry and wonder and consider on her own the possibilities.

My heart about broke for her as she struggled to understand her mother’s illness and bravely sought answers to her most fearful question: Will I also become like my mother because I also love art? It’s clear that Laura feels very alone with this struggle, but she does have people who care for her – Mrs Grant tries to reach out to her, Dr Goodman comes through with basic, honest information, Mrs Boucher listens and helps Laura find a creative outlet.

In an afterword the author states that this work is partly based on her own experiences as a teen in the early 1960s. The result is a very personal, emotional story.
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I've read books before where a character having a mental illness was part of the story, but 'Crazy' was different in that it didn't feel like a story but more like a chapter of someones life. The book is told in verse thru 15 year-old Laura's eyes in the 1960's. Laura and her family struggle to live a "normal" life with Laura's mother being bipolar in a time when we truly didn't understand this mental illness. Throughout the story you feel like you're there experiencing life with Laura, all her trials and discoveries.… (más)

This is a well written novel in verse about a teenage girl, Laura, growing up with the fear of inheriting her mother's mental illness. The story takes place in the 1960's when not much was then known or how to mental illnesses. I received this book as an early reviewer and was so happy to find another story written in verse because the emotions of the narrator are so easy to comprehend. Although the story takes place over just a years amount of time, the author was able to easily tell of previous events without bogging down the story.

I would love to read another of Linda Phillips books written in verse and was certainly happy to have won this one.… (más)