book details

Book: Crazy by Linda Vigen Phillips

categories: Book, Realistic Fiction, Mental Health, Bipolar Disorder, Junior Library Guild, Notable Social Studies, Young Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels in Verse, Indiefab Finalist, Mental Illness

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Linda Vigen Phillips

about this book: Crazy is the story of a teenage girl coming to terms with her mother's mental illness. Laura is a typical teenage girl growing up in a small town in Oregon in the sixties. She wants to become an artist like her mother, but that dream fades as she watches her mother disintegrate into mental illness. Anyone who has a loved one with mental illness or who has encountered it themselves will relate to the struggles that Laura experiences. While this is a Young Adult book, this story will resonate with adults who grew up in the sixties and found themselves helpless at the hands of mental illness within their family. It was the silent era, with inadequate psychotropic drugs and no talk therapy or supportive family counseling services.

October 2016 marks the second anniversary of Crazy in the world and it coincides with National Mental Health Awareness Week. I celebrate the dialogue that has evolved over these two years, and the lives that have been touched by open and honest conversation that includes hope and the real possibilities of pursuing a full and successful life in spite of mental illness.