(2) YA This ambitious novel in verse uses magical realism and fairy-tale elements to explore clinical depression and highlight the various stages of grief. Whimsy is back at the hospital again, where she has been forced to go numerous times since she was diagnosed with clinical depression. She recognizes the sadness and grief she feels, and she knows numerous coping mechanisms to manage her feelings, but she still struggles daily with her (gradually revealed) trauma. Although she is used to the hospital routine, this visit is different because she meets Faerry, a boy who knows sorrow that mirrors her own. Their bond is strengthened after their release from the facility, and together they decide to help each other cope with the pain that affects them both. When Faerry enters the Haunting Forest, a sinister plot of land that feeds on pain, Whimsy follows. If they cannot make it through, sorrow might swallow them whole, leaving nothing but death in its wake. McBride's (Me (Moth), rev. 1/22) lush free-verse poetry creates a vibrant world teetering between the real and the magical, but the images and atmosphere act as background to serious issues of trauma and suicidality. Although the subject matter is heavy, the book serves as a reminder that, as sorrow and loss come for everyone, no one is alone. Back matter addresses mental health and expands on the story's elements from fairy tales and folklore.

Reviewer: S. R. Toliver | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) YA Stone's (Dear Martin, rev. 11/17) latest YA novel opens with a text-message exchange between two apparent strangers, one of whom has accidentally messaged the other during a night of heavy drinking. The third-person narration then alternates focus between the two of them. On her way home, Shelbi, the recipient of the mysterious message, passes a car accident and believes she sees her classmate Andy. The next chapter introduces readers to Andy as he sits in a police vehicle, having crashed his own car while driving drunk. Shelbi and Andy soon realize they were texting each other and begin hanging out. Once they become close friends, Shelbi, who has bipolar disorder, asks Andy to sign a friendship contract in order to protect herself from harmful behavior, which she has experienced in the past. But the complications aren't over, in part due to Andy's drinking. Readers will appreciate Stone's honest discussion of the critical issues of mental illness and substance abuse (a content warning also indicates self-harm). The book provides a starting point for thinking about how to set boundaries in friendships, as well as what it means to support a friend who is in need. Opening and closing notes from the author emphasize the importance of ending the stigma around mental illness.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 Sixth grader Zia Angelis is living with depression--the Shadoom, to Zia, who is fond of inventing portmanteau words. She doesn't know how to explain what she's feeling to her supportive mother, to her one-time friends, or to Alice Phan, the cool new girl at school. When her "grumpy Greek grandmother" moves in, Zia discovers a dictionary in her yiayia's things that turns out to have magical powers: it's erasable, and whenever Zia removes a word from the dictionary, that concept disappears from the world. Getting rid of peach seems like no big deal, but when Zia tries to combat the Shadoom by erasing fear and pain, the results are far messier. Discovering that her yiayia has always known the dictionary's secret--and that all generations of her family have faced their own problems with depression--allows Zia to fix what the dictionary broke and deal with her mental health on her own terms. Barton fits a lot into the narrative--depression, dementia, economic inequality, Greek and Vietnamese heritages, the small indignities of school--without overwhelming the story. The characters are fully formed, and Zia's eventual solution to the problem of the dictionary is unexpected but just right. The frequent invented words range from charming to cloying, depending on the reader's sensibilities, but are unquestionably creative.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) YA This sensitive novel does an impressive balancing act, examining mental illness and its stigma among Asian Americans while weaving in themes of racism and grief. San Francisco area teen Maybelline Chen's world is shattered when her beloved older brother, Danny, dies by suicide weeks before high-school graduation. Compounding the tragedy, a white classmate's rich venture capitalist father publicly blames Danny's death and other recent teen suicides on academic pressure from Asian "tiger moms and dads." Tension builds when Maybelline, an aspiring writer, pushes back through poetry and by organizing a school-wide protest--activities that jeopardize her mother's job. Ho admirably captures Maybelline's pain and sorrow as she deals with so many conflicting emotions. At the same time, she highlights the protagonist's naiveté and myopia when she doesn't support her Black best friend at a police brutality protest and is forced to evaluate her own biases and limited understanding of anti-Black racism. The novel runs a bit long, and the plot raises several minor logic questions. However, in picture-book author Ho's (Eyes That Kiss in the Corners; Playing at the Border, rev. 9/21) debut young adult novel, the overarching messages--working through issues via conversations, listening with empathy, and seeking help--ring loud and clear.

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA Estranged from her mother and twin sister, sixteen-year-old Minah learns about her mom's death through a Facebook invitation to a family reunion and memorial. Minah, now living with her father in Brooklyn, returns to her hometown of (fictional) Obsidian, Michigan, to attend the event. As she attempts to understand the immense loss of a parent, the visit becomes an opportunity for Minah to grieve and to connect back to a traumatic past to which she'd previously promised herself never to return. Her grandmother's announcement that she plans to sell the family home begins a new reckoning of what home and family really mean. Minah's first-person narration lends poignancy to this coming-of-age story, which, as she uncovers more about the past--including through the reading of her mother's diaries--also becomes more clearly a chronicle of the grief of a family affected by the diseases of addiction and mental illness and the veil of secrecy that shrouds them.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA Dani is a sixteen-year-old debutante whose "life revolved around Black cotillion and Black society and Black choir," until she started to rebel by drinking and using drugs. Camila is a Latina teen dancer who secretly self-harms, believing that "it's not through sacrifice one finds salvation. It's through suffering." After online photos of an intoxicated Dani embarrass her parents and Camila attempts suicide following the news that her family can't afford dance school, both girls are admitted to Peach Tree Hills Treatment Facility, where they become roommates. Assigned to clean out a storage shed, they find a set of letters from a past resident that initiates a personal journey for each of them toward wellness and imbues the recovery narrative with a hint of mystery. In alternating chapters, each girl shares the story of her treatment: brooding Camila looks inward; brash Dani is argmentative. While the detailed dialogues between Dani and her psychiatrist (who is also Black) can occasionally feel didactic, they also underscore the importance of culturally ­relevant therapy in supporting patients of color. (Kuehn, When I Am Through with You, rev. 9/17, is a clinical psychologist herself.) Fans of Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After, rev. 5/18; An Arrow to the Moon, rev. 5/22) and Amy Reed (The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World) will be drawn into Camila's and Dani's healing processes.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA Illustrated by Aatmaja Pandya. This graphic novel sensitively explores friendship, love, art, mental health, and self-harm. Just before Jade leaves for the Art Farm, a competitive summer intensive program that might snag her a scholarship to art school, her best friend, Phoebe, attempts suicide. Worried about Phoebe, who is now in a mental health facility, and fearing that her own clay art is simply not good enough, Jade tries desperately to focus on her Art Farm work. While searching for inspiration, she falls into a sweet summer romance with fellow artist Mary. Jade discovers that burning her drawings can create a kind of magic, replaying her memories with Phoebe in the flames. It's cathartic--until it starts to bring the clay monsters she's now making to life. Pandya's illustrations are shaded white and navy except in moments of intense emotion, when scenes turn brilliant red. This device heightens the contrast between the friendly, rounded art style showing Jade's rural summer program and her growing internal distress. Her emotional arc is compellingly messy and gut-wrenching, as she grapples with her responsibility to a friend in crisis, genuine trauma reactions, and the stresses of life as an artist. Readers will learn about the process of working with clay and grow to care about these tender, complex relationships, including Jade's relationships to her art and to herself.

Reviewer: Bodie Shanis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA Ever since Collin's mother died in a car accident, he has worked hard on instructions for what to do in a variety of disastrous situations. His orange notebook is filled with tips, such as these for surviving being buried in an avalanche: "Note where gravity carries your saliva. Dig in the opposite direction." He misses his mother's "morning smooch attacks" as well as the way she kept his brilliant mathematician father's hoarding tendencies under control: "Without someone to keep / Dad's collections in check, / layers accumulate / like...sedimentary rock formations." As the condition of the house deteriorates, it becomes harder for Collin to keep himself clean and to find food. Fortunately, he has two close friends in Liam and Georgia, who don't know about his father's mental illness but are unfailingly supportive and help him feel normal. The verse novel pinpoints Collin's grief over his mother's death, his resulting anxiety, and how he copes with a father he loves but cannot rely on, using short, authentic phrases that home in on his feelings: "I can't decide / if I should laugh / or barf." The inclusion of several concrete poems adds impact, one of the most impressive being a poem in the shape of a house crammed to the brim with words. It's a touching and believable story of getting through to the other side of a terrible time, with Collin's practical survival advice sprinkled throughout.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Veronica Agarwal. In this graphic novel, sixth grader Maggie starts middle school with familiar worries: making friends, confronting bullies, navigating classes. She carries a many-sided die to roll whenever she's confused, worried, or otherwise at a crossroads, each number corresponding in her mind to an action she should or should not take. Maggie is a gamer and a sci-fi/­fantasy and superhero fan, and she decides to join the school's RPG (that's role-playing game, for newbs) afterschool club. She grows comfortable with new like-minded friends--but she's still reliant on her die. At home, surrounded by her loving, supportive South Asian family, she's compelled to flick the lights, color-code her books, etc. What's more, there's a fierce white dragon in her head that second-guesses her thoughts and psyches her out: "That was all your fault...You can't do anything right, can you?" Maggie's compulsions and anxieties are important to the story, but this isn't a book solely about them. Throughout the tale, illustrated in easy-to-read panel art with bubbly character shapes and subdued hues, we meet engaging secondary characters and even tag along as Maggie and friends help solve a (somewhat unlikely) wildlife mystery. An appended note touches on the book creators' own experiences with mental illness.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) YA Joel Teague--an affable, self-deprecating teen living in 1990s Michigan--is at a crossroads. After years spent in and out of inpatient psychiatric care following an unspecified "Bad Thing That Happened," Joel is now seventeen and long past his last flare-up. When his therapist prescribes a part-time job, Joel gets hired at ROYO Video. There, he takes the Star Wars–inspired nickname Solo and, with it, the chance to reinvent himself as "Normal"--as long as he keeps his history secret from his gaggle of quirky, cinematically pseudonymed young coworkers. In this pop culture–heavy period piece, Solo narrates his own halting, sometimes misguided emotional coming of age with an earnest, immediate voice. His friendship with Baby--a tough, straightforward, pregnant colleague standing at her own crossroads--becomes both a safe haven from his increasingly difficult parents and a proving ground for his complex relationships with others: for example, when she pushes him to examine his behavior around a gay coworker with a crush on him, and around his troubled but alluring boss. The ­lingering, ­often-alluded-to mystery of Solo's past casts an uneasy tension over his social wins and losses. The traumatic story he eventually reveals is neither tidy nor redeeming, but ­neither, Solo learns, is life--even for Normal people. Authentically flawed characters and imperfect connections add heft to this bittersweet workplace dramedy.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(2) 4-6 It is London 1945, and Charlie's beloved elder brother Theo returns from the war. Theo is suffering from what would now be called PTSD, and Charlie, devastated by Theo's condition, is determined to "fix" him and return the family to pre-war normal. On the Blitz-ravaged streets of London, Charlie meets up with a set of huge, powerful, and malevolent spirit wolves, invisible to all except Charlie. The wolves (with names such as Regret and Remembrance) have eaten the hearts of despairing returned soldiers; thus the "hollow chest" of the title. The creatures direct Charlie to a series of dangerous tasks involving cleverness, bravery, and self-sacrifice. With the support of a hospitalized war veteran, a kindly nurse, and a neighborhood eccentric, Charlie attempts to restore his brother's heart without endangering his own. In a lush, simile-studded narrative Sandstrom invokes metaphor, mental illness, fairy tale, quest adventure, and fantasy as she fully inhabits her troubled young character. She is less sure-footed in the domestic details of mid-century lower-middle-class English life, with terminology and tea-making needing a bit more research. The central idea, however, of the "wolves of war" and how they slink around long after armistice is deftly realized, and as relevant as ever.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) 4-6 This semiautobiographical verse novel begins with eleven-year-old Chinese American girl Frances Chin witnessing an attack on her older sister, Clara, behind their school. (Frances herself has endured taunts centered on race: "you're SO SO ugly / open your eyes / he laughs with his fingers pulling / his eyes to make / them squinty.") But with passive bystander classmates and a mother who stresses maintaining family honor, Frances remains silent, internalizing her feelings. The one place she feels a sense of control is on the tennis court, playing with her friend Annie and eventually on the school's team ("I feel like I can / lift the world with / my racket"). After noticing some worrying behaviors (and hair loss) in her sister, she finds and ultimately reads Clara's diary, which reveals Clara's struggles with trichotillomania, also called hair-pulling disorder. In a heartfelt scene, Frances overcomes emotional barriers and silently reveals to Clara that she knows her secret. Themes of bullying, empathy, family, and identity are explored through Chang's spare prose. The author elegantly expresses Frances's complex emotions and provides an intimate portrait of immigrant lives. An appended note provides insight into Chang's experience growing up in an immigrant family "not familiar with mental health issues such as trichotillomania."

Reviewer: Kristine Techavanich | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(2) 4-6 In this prequel to OCDaniel, Sara Melvern keeps a list of all the things that "normal" kids do that she can't because of the myriad disorders she experiences. Sara's parents, teachers, and therapist try to convince her that these ­disorders--bipolar disorder, depression, ­generalized ­anxiety disorder, mild schizophrenia, and selective mutism--are not her fault. She copes with attacks and triggers by ­playing "games" that unfortunately lead to her ostracism at school. Sara feels as though her disorders are exposed by joining group therapy, but she is ­pleasantly ­surprised when she is able to tick a couple of "normal" things off her list by making a friend and developing a crush on a fellow therapy seeker. As the story unfolds, Sara ­witnesses her parents' crumbling marriage and unwittingly drives a wedge between herself and her only friend. Sara also takes herself off of her medication without consulting any adults, believing it a step to becoming "normal," but the book doesn't address the ­consequences of her risky decision. More positively, by surviving heartache and a fraught friendship, Sara is emboldened to be part of a larger social circle.

Reviewer: Maija Meadows Hasegawa | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

(2) YA In this slow-burn romance novel told from alternating perspectives, McGovern (Say What You Will, rev. 7/14; A Step Toward Falling, rev. 9/15) introduces another pair of disparate teens who forge an unlikely connection, this time over a shared experience with chronic illness. Jamie, homeschooled for most of her life, feels isolated after her father's suicide and her own hospitalization for depression. Then she meets and befriends David, the senior-class president, while she is volunteering at the hospital. At school, David is a celebrity, but at the hospital, he is a cystic fibrosis patient grappling with a dire prognosis. The two divulge their nerdy interests (for Jamie, old movies; for David, ballroom dancing), exchange gently flirtatious emails, and share deep thoughts over origami. Their conversations are notably forthright; they approach difficult topics--such as the stigma of hidden illness, impossible expectations from friends and family, and the intersections of mental and physical health--from sensitive and age-appropriate perspectives. The thrill of intimacy inspires despondent David to seize control of his increasingly limited life, but when he enlists Jamie to sneak him out of the hospital, disaster ensues. The subsequent cascade of consequences veers toward melodrama (for example, David hovers over his body in a coma dream for a few chapters), but the resolution, like the teens' relationship, unfolds carefully, without sugarcoating, and feels genuinely earned.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

(2) YA Narrator June Bug Jordan watches "beanpole" Ziggy Karlo, with his "unruly mop of red hair," arrive at his grandmother's house on idyllic Trowbridge Road in the summer of 1983. The two loners quickly become friends, finding solace in the imagined magical "ninth dimension" they explore behind Ziggy's house. In reality, their lives are complicated, unhappy, and full of secrets. Ziggy is bullied for his appearance, extensive vocabulary, and active imagination; and he's staying with Nana Jean because of his mother's struggles with parenting and an abusive boyfriend. June Bug is hiding the fact that her mother suffers from mental illness and debilitating grief over her (closeted gay) husband's death from a misunderstood new disease called AIDS; Mother never leaves the house, rarely eats, and obsessively cleans everything with bleach--including June Bug--because "clean meant safe." As Ziggy and June Bug painfully learn, sometimes mothers haven't "figured out the right way to love," or they "don't know how to make it stick." Pixley (Ready to Fall, rev. 3/18) tackles difficult topics from the heartrending perspective of a girl slowly realizing that her family badly needs help. Descriptive language vividly renders settings and feelings, as June Bug contends with revealing the truth plus her own guilt and grief over her father. Give this emotional read to thoughtful tweens who can handle the serious subject matter.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(3) YA Sixteen-year-old Melati suffers from OCD and calms her tormenting thoughts (imagining her mother's gruesome death) by tapping and counting. When race riots begin in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, violence explodes all around Melati and she's separated from her mother. With the help of a Chinese boy, Melati travels through the war-torn city in hopes of reuniting with her mother. A beautifully written, riveting novel.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(2) 4-6 Alice's storytelling dad is in a psychiatric hospital, having lost the ability to distinguish story from reality. Wild animals start appearing in town, seeking Alice to save the threatened Story Web she discovered when she was little. Blakemore skillfully uses shifting points of view in this complex and captivating tale. A realistic, honest consideration of the impact of mental illness commingles effectively with the fantastical elements.

Reviewer: Monica Edinger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(2) YA This heartfelt biography traces Ballets Russes star/choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky's (1890–1950) trajectory from lonesome childhood through his 1909 Paris debut and ensuing mega-stardom to his diagnosis of schizophrenia and institutionalization. Curlee sensitively explores Nijinsky's contradictions, including as a magnetic performer with little social grace and as a sex symbol tormented by his own sexual desires. The beautifully designed volume includes Curlee's striking jewel-toned portraits and archival photographs. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(2) YA Aussie teen Biz sees and speaks to her dead father and often feels detached from her own body. On a soul-searching journey to her father's outback childhood home, she suffers a terrifying break with reality; family, friends, and mental-health workers help Biz explore her father's death, understand her anxiety and depression, and realize her sexual identity. Fox's debut is a sensitively wrought character study expressed in distinctive, intimate prose.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2019

(1) YA Grimes reconstructs her life story from a patchwork of recollections; old photos; and a few artifacts salvaged despite her impoverished family's frequent moves and time in foster care. Mental illness, alcoholism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse made Grime's early life hazardous and traumatic; writing offered solace and confidence. Striking free-verse poems powerfully convey how her passion helped her survive and embrace her own resilience. A must-read for aspiring writers.

Reviewer: Michelle H. Martin | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019