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: Harper Collins. ISBN 0060283874

PLOT SUMMARY

This collection of poems is based on the poems Sones wrote when she was thirteen and her sister was hospitalized after a mental breakdown.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Throughout the collection, Sones poems are arranged in a variety of ways.  Lines are of varying lengths.  For example, “my boyfriend / watching me / through the feathery leaves of the willow / click” (125).  Sones also does not use a rhyming pattern in her poetry.  The flow of the poems seems natural and the rhythm does not feel forced.  The language of the poem is also simple and natural. 

The collection is based on Sones’s journal as a teenager and while reading it, the reader gets the distinct impression that they are reading a personal journal.  The poems are very introspective.  Sones arranges the language of her poems in a very meaningful way.  The reader gets the impression that words were chosen very deliberately.  Sones excels in creating imagery of the poem.  For example, “We ride the subway / over to the hospital. / John jumps / when the heavy iron door of the ward locks / KACHUNGGGG /  behind us” (129).  

Of all of the evaluation criteria, Sones is best at creating emotion with her writing.  The reader can feel the emotional toll that her sister’s hospitalization has on the narrator.  The poems are so personal that it is nearly impossible to not identify with them in some way.

This collection is lengthy at 145 pages.  Although it is not a short read, the length allows Sones to share the progression of her sister’s hospitalization.  The poems are more powerful when read together than individually.  The arrangement of the poems encourages the reader to be drawn in to the story like they might if they were reading fiction prose.  As a true story, the content is even more powerful.  Based on the content, this book would be most appropriate for teenagers. 

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Booklist:  “Based on Sones' own family experience, this debut novel shows the capacity of poetry to record the personal and translate it into the universal.”

School Library Journal:  “An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness-its stigma, its realities, and its effect on family members.”

CONNECTIONS

As suggested in the School Library Journal review, this book would be an excellent starting point for a discussion of mental illness.