GENRE 3 POETRY: STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sones, Sonya. 1999. STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060283874

PLOT SUMMARY
Sonya Sones has written a verse novel about her own experiences of what was happening in her life when her sister was diagnosed with a mental illness and was institutionalized. The poems are organized into a very dramatic story of how the family deals with the trauma. The author is thirteen and has to figure out her own way to deal with the loss of her big sister, as she knows her, because her parents are very much in shock and are barely coping themselves.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This is a very emotional story written as a verse novel. Each poem is like a clip in a movie that tells the details of each dramatic day. One can literally feel the author’s pain and confusion of what is happening in her life. It is almost like reading a diary that is written in poetry. She creates visual imagery through the use of her words. The reader can truly picture her sister and the place she is now living in. An example of this is an excerpt of the poem titled SISTER’S ROOM
How can she live
in that puke green room
with only that one barred window
to look out of ?

How can she sleep
in that narrow steel bed
on that thin mattress
under those scratchy sheets?

The words are simple yet expressive. Instead of just describing the room we are able to connect to it through the use of her questioning each thing in the room. One uses all of their senses while reading this novel. There is an Author’s Note page at the end that explains how she came to write this verse novel. This book is based on true events. The author used the journal that she was keeping during this time period to write this novel. Her sister was diagnosed as manic-depressive, and we learn from these notes that she continues to receive treatment, and has gone on to lead a normal and productive life. This is a very powerful and moving novel. This is an emotional subject that touches so many people on so many different levels. Expressing her thirteen year old thoughts this way is deeply moving.


BOOK REVIEWS
From School Library Journal:"Grade 6-9-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. Based on the journals Sones wrote at the age of 13 when her 19-year-old sister was hospitalized due to manic depression, the simply crafted but deeply felt poems reflect her thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams during that troubling time."

From Kirkus Reviews"PLB 0-06-028386-6 In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love."


CONNECTIONS
Students could read other novels written in verse
Make a book display of a variety of novels written in verse