Young Adult Gold

Busy, busy time of the quarter, but I finally get a break to update on my latest read. Here are the stats for Running For My Life:
Author: Ann Gonzalez
Publisher: Westside Books
Date: 2009
My start date: 2/10/10
My finish date: 2/11/10

Now, many might be wondering at my decision to include young adult fiction in my reading. Well, first of all, yes, it is still a long enough work to be counted as a novel. This book was 234 pages, which is roughly the same as most of the novels. Some have been a little (or a lot) longer and some have been less. Obviously it is a quicker read that some others, but that is not necessarily a product of it being easier. Being still rather burned out on certain other required readings, I tried where possible during the earlier part of this week to ignore all responsibility and just read. Plus, this book was hard to put down! But, back to the question at hand. I do not at all feel that adults are too old to read YA lit. We were all teens at some time. We have all experienced those things. And a lot of these books have lessons that some of us still need to learn...

In the case of this book, the material is actually rather adult in many ways, I think. The story revolves around a teenage girl dealing with life after her mother succumbs to schizophrenia. On the one hand, she still has to deal with normal teenage life and wants very much to feel normal. If only everyday teen problems were the worst of it! Yet, she is dealing with conflicting feelings about seeing a therapist and being unsure how she can and should feel about a mother whom she loves and of whom she has fond memories, but who is now often violent and hurtful. The author infuses great depth into her main character, and is all the more believable because she can write from personal experience.

I especially recommend this novel for its target audience of young adults. I worked as a teacher in the public school system (not anywhere around Seattle, I didn't always live around here) and I think this book could really help a lot of the young people I worked with, and not just the ones with parents suffering from mental illness. There is a lot to identify with in general here.

I will say, this book was especially fun to read, because the author is also my writing class teacher. And no, that is not the reason I would recommend it. It really is a great resource for teens dealing with issues and learning to be ok with needing help. But, as I was saying, this is the first time I have actually known the author. I mean, sometimes if I really like an author I will facebook friend them (including some of the authors mentioned on this blog), but that isn't like I know them personally. In this case, if I had a question or a thought about the book, I could ask her in person. That really added to the reading.

So, my first YA of this blog and it was a really powerful one. Sometimes I like YA for pure entertainment, but this one really has a little something more. Don't be embarrassed to grab this one for yourself, but if you know a teen, any teen, insist that they read this one!

A few papers and presentations due in the next several days, not to mention the ever-present, never-ending Clarissa... But I have already started another memoir. This time I will be following a woman as she quits her day job and heads for Paris to study cooking! And I am sure I will be getting increasingly jealous. More on this one later!
Until then, keep reading!
Sarah