Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

Problems?
Ideas?
Suggestions?
Please email BudNotBuddy@aol.com

Thank You!

"People who have never come close to seeking death don't understand its promise of an end to life's struggles. They don't understand the precarious teeter-totter on which a suicidal person balances, shuffling reasons to live and reasons to die back and forth to avoid hitting bottom. They don't understand that when you're that low, when you can't see beyond yourself and your fallen-apart world, it's the little things that send you over the edge, not the big things."

"And sometimes it is the littlest things that keep you going, too."

So says the narrator of AIMEE, a bitter young woman and a somewhat infamous loner in her new town. She--who is not even named until near the end of the book--is apparently well versed on the subject of suicide. Her parents have moved her to the new town after her acquittal on murder charges in the death of her closest friend, Aimee. The newspaper articles referred to her as JK--as in Jack Kevorkian. But, before the trial she was heralded in those same pages as a star runner--a State champion and record holder. Furthermore, she and Aimee had been among an extremely close-knit group of six friends. So what really happened to and with Aimee, and what will happen when the suicidal girl at the new school reaches out to befriend the narrator?

Realizing that this is at least the third book dealing with the question of teen suicide that I've already included in my picks this year--not counting the paperback edition of Patricia McCormick's CUT which I've also been booktalking--I thought that I should take a look at why this was an issue being grasped by many young adult authors.

A quick search online revealed hundreds of articles, such as this one from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Preventing Teen Suicide

These articles consistently speak of the increasing rate of teen suicide, note a number of signs to watch out for, and speculate as to why it is becoming what many characterize as an epidemic.

It would seem to me, then, that there is great value in teens reading books, such as AIMEE, that contribute to their understanding of why one of their friends might contemplate such a course of action, and what they should take note of in their friend's behavior.

But here, Aimee is already gone. The narrator is left with all of the questions and consequences to face without the benefit of the one person she really wants to turn to. At the depth of her despair, while in a session, she responds to the psychiatrist she's nicknamed Marge:

"'But what if I had helped, and she lived, and nothing changed? Isn't that worse? I think it would've been. She tried to make others believe her, and no one would. No one except us kids, that is. And because we did, because I did, I get all this righteous shit about helping and how life is always worth living. Let me tell you, surviving isn't the picture you crack it up to be. Surviving is a piece of shit the size of Montana.' I stop. My breath drags my shoulders up, then down. My head clears, then fogs. Yellow slides across my eyes, first in dots, then in waves.

"Right before I hit the floor, I think, Thank God, I don't have to survive anymore."

This is a powerful and gripping story about a girl who slowly reveals to us and to Marge what happened with her and her best friend, AIMEE.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com