Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

Download Free (EPUB, PDF)

Continuously in print for nearly two decades, this groundbreaking and profoundly moving story told in verse, from award-winning author Sonya Sones, has been repackaged with a striking new cover and bonus content.When her beloved older sister is hospitalized after a sudden mental breakdown, Cookie is left behind to cope with a family torn apart by grief, friends who shun her, and her fear that she, too, might one day lose her mind.Based on award-winning author Sonya Sones’s own true story, this novel explores the chilling landscape of mental illness, revealing glimmers of beauty and of hope along the way. Told in a succession of short and powerful poems, it takes us deep into the cyclone of the narrator’s emotions: despair, anger, guilt, resentment, and ultimately, acceptance.

Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen; Reprint edition (July 12, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0064462188

ISBN-13: 978-0064462181

Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5 x 7.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #233,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #28 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Poetry #38 in Books > Teens > Social Issues > Family #55 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Social Science > Psychology

This book, STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPED WHEN My BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY, was on a required reading list for a course I took in Young Adult Literature. I could not put it down.On Christmas Eve, "A wild-eyed Jewish girl wearing only a nightgown," rushes out of the house to go to Midnight Mass. She is in the midst of a nervous breakdown. After this, she is institutionalized, but life must go on for the family.Told through the poems of the younger sister, 13 year-old Cookie, this novel is based upon real life events of the author. In her poems, in which we have the unfolding of the story, Cookie reveals her great fear that this will happen to her as well. She deals with her issues of shame over her sisters' condition. She experiences memories of how life was before the breakdown, and almost lives in a denial of the experience. Her former friends reject Cookie. In her poems, Cookie captures the intense emotions and feelings in dealing with life, and all of the troublesome events of the aftermath of this life altering event.But not all is bad. Cookie finds photography, and begins a healing process. She meets a new boy at school who knows nothing of Cookies' sister, and they fall in love. Within these events, Cookie learns that life goes on, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, but it does go forward.The poems throughout vary in length, but mostly stick to free verse. The use of poems is an effective tool to convey the deep emotions. In the novel, the fate of her sister is unanswered, but seems hopeful in tone.In a final note to the book, Sones does shed light on the rest of the story in her own personal experience, with her own sisters success.

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe Pretending is Lying Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-up Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It You Look Like That Girl: A Child Actor Stops Pretending and Finally Grows Up Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Stop, Train, Stop! A Thomas the Tank Engine Story The One-Stop Bible Atlas (One-Stop series) The Official Crazy Bones Sticker Book! (Crazy Bones) Crazy at the Cabin: A Cozy Collection of Crazy-Pieced Quilts Quilting _ Just a Little Bit Crazy: A Marriage of Traditional & Crazy Quilting Shell Crazy (Crazy Little) Crazy Game: Penguin (Crazy Games) Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 1 (Out-of-date version replaced by New and Improved version: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 1 CDR) Big Nate Triple Play Box Set: Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, Big Nate Strikes Again, Big Nate on a Roll A Guide to Being a Big Sister (Olivia TV Tie-in) I'm Going to be a Big Sister Mia and the Big Sister Ballet (My First I Can Read) I Am a Big Sister