Book list *Starred Review* Award-winning author Shusterman returns to realistic fiction with a breathtaking exploration of one teen's experience with schizophrenia. Caden Bosch thinks there is somebody at his high school who wants to kill him. But that's not all. There are things happening outside of the typical space and time constraints that he can't understand. He feels at once all-powerful and frighteningly powerless. Caden slowly drifts away from friends and family and deeper into his mind, until his parents admit him to a mental hospital for further evaluation and treatment. Shusterman beautifully deploys dual narratives that become increasingly intertwined in this remarkable story. In addition to the grounded-in-reality narrative, he introduces another world, where Caden is out at sea with the Captain, a girl named Calliope, a parrot, and more. All of these characters eventually match real-world counterparts in the hospital and beyond. In confessional back matter, Shusterman explains his inspiration for this powerful story: his own son Brendan's experience in the depths of mental illness. Brendan Shusterman's illustrations, interspersed throughout, contribute significantly to the reading experience. With the increasing demand for understanding mental illness, this is a must-purchase for library collections. Haunting, unforgettable, and life affirming all at once. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An author tour and powerhouse promotional plan will mean lots of attention for best-selling Shusterman's latest endeavor.--Barnes, Jennifer Copyright 2015 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Kirkus Fantasy becomes reality in an exploration of mental illness based partly on the experiences of the author's son, who is also the book's illustrator. For 14-year-old Caden Bosch, his gradual descent into schizophrenia is a quest to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest place on Earth. In an internal reality that's superimposed over Caden's real lifewhere his behavior slips from anxiety to hearing voices and compulsively obeying signagean Ahab-like captain promises riches in exchange for allegiance, while his parrot urges mutiny for a chance at life ashore. Shusterman unmoors readers with his constant use of present tense and lack of transitions, but Caden's nautical hallucination-turned-subplot becomes clearer once his parents commit him to Seaview Hospital's psychiatric unit with its idiosyncratic crew of patients and staff. However, Caden's disorientation and others' unease also make the story chillingly real. Except in the heights of Caden's delusions, nothing is romanticizedjust off-kilter enough to show how easily unreality acquires its own logic and wit. The illustrator, who has struggled with mental illness himself, charts the journey with abstract line drawings that convey Caden's illness as well as his insight. When the depths are revealed with a dream-logic twist and Caden chooses an allegiance, the sea becomes a fine metaphor for a mind: amorphous and tumultuous but ultimately navigable. An adventure in perspective as well as plot, this unusual foray into schizophrenia should leave readers with a deeper understanding of the condition. (author's note) (Fiction. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly With lyricism and potent insight, Shusterman (Unwind) traces the schizophrenic descent and return of Caden Bosch, an intelligent 15-year-old and a gifted artist. His internal narratives are sometimes dreams, sometimes hallucinations, and sometimes undefinable, dominated by a galleon and its captain, sailing with an enormous, sullen crew to the deepest point of the Marianas Trench, Challenger Deep. The metaphor's not exactly subtle, but Shusterman finds unexpected resonance in its details-the tarry seams in the wood, the human ballast. External reality still registers: people around Caden run the gamut of humor, scolding, threats, and avoidance to pressure him into changing behavior he no longer controls. Shusterman has mined personal experience of mental illness with his son Brendan, whose line drawings mirror Caden's fragmentation in swirling lines eerily reminiscent of Van Gogh. It's a powerful collaboration, and crucial to the novel's credibility. As Caden says, "There is no such thing as a 'correct' diagnosis," and though his story doesn't necessarily represent a "typical" experience of mental illness, it turns symptoms into lived reality in ways readers won't easily forget. Ages 14-up. Agent: Andrea Brown, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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School Library Journal Gr 9 Up-Caden Bosch lives in two worlds. One is his real life with his family, his friends, and high school. There he is paranoid for no reason, thinks people are trying to kill him, and demonstrates obsessive compulsive behaviors. In his other world, he's part of the crew for a pirate captain on a voyage to the Challenger Deep, the ocean's deepest trench. There he's paranoid, wary of the mercurial captain and his mutinous parrot, and tries hard to interpret the mutterings of his fellow shipmates as they sail uncharted waters toward unknown dangers. Slowly, Caden's fantasy and paranoia begin to take over, until his parents have only one choice left. Shusterman's latest novel gives readers a look at teen mental illness from inside the mind of Caden Bosch. He is a credible and sympathetic character, and his retreat into his own flawed mind is fascinating, full of riddles and surrealism. Shusterman based the novel on his son's mental illness, and Brendan's input regarding his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and psychiatric care makes the novel ring true. Teens, especially fans of the author's other novels, will enjoy this book. VERDICT This affecting deep dive into the mind of a schizophrenic will captivate readers, engender empathy for those with mental illnesses, and offer much fodder for discussion.-Heather Miller Cover, Homewood Public Library, AL (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Horn Book The surreal fantasies of fifteen-year-old Caden Bosch commingle with more comprehensible accounts of family and school, until his parents have him admitted to a psychiatric ward. The disorientation Shusterman evokes through the first-person narration is an apt, effective way to bring readers into nightmarish anxiety and despair--and out of it. The novel is moving, but it's also funny, with dry, insightful humor. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list A young boy copes with change through self-expression in this wonderful picture book. Harpreet wears different colored patkas, a common head covering worn by young Sikh boys, to highlight how he feels each day. From celebratory to unsure, the colors allow him to nonverbally communicate his state of mind in an effective way. When it is time to move across the country, away from the sunny beaches he loves to a snowier climate, his anxiety is demonstrated this way as well. From nervousness to shyness, the color of his patka signals his unhappiness about the change, until chance helps him make a new friend with a special “hat” of her own. The fantastic illustrations perfectly complement the storytelling, and the ending is sure to make young readers smile. The note at the end from a Sikh scholar helps explain the religion and the significance of the turbans practitioners wear. This tale of acceptance and growth is a definitive purchase for children’s collections, and will be shared for years to come.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

School Library Journal K-Gr 2—Harpreet cherishes his colorful patkas, a style of Sikh turban often worn by young boys, and he carefully selects the color to telegraph his mood each day: "He wore yellow when he felt sunny, spreading cheer everywhere he went. He wore pink when he felt like celebrating, bopping along to bhangra beats." When Harpreet and his family leave the warm beaches of California for a snowy town across the country, Harpreet's color palette changes as he relies on brave reds, nervous blues, sad grays, and shy whites which replace his happier moods. The long cold winter makes Harpreet feel even more like an outsider, until one day in the snow he finds a hat that belongs to a classmate. When he returns the hat, a friendship blooms and Harpreet feels colorful again. The digital illustrations depict Harpreet as joyful and exuberant, which makes his shift to sadness and isolation after the move palpable. Subtle details in the illustrations, such as kids staring at Harpreet's "different" lunch, position him not only as the new kid, but underscore his feelings of isolation as a cultural outsider. Harpreet's symbolic color system is used masterfully to add depth to the illustrations, as on the page where Harpreet sits, small and alone wearing shy white, on a background of joyful celebratory pink as a cascade of Valentines—most with his name misspelled—floats away. VERDICT A lovely story about change and belonging that provides much-needed representation. A first purchase for all libraries.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

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Kirkus Indian American Harpreet Singh is a practicing Sikh and has a different color patka, or head covering, for every occasion.He wears yellow when he feels sunny and cheerful, pink when he feels like celebrating, and red when he wants to feel brave. When his mother gets a job in a small snowy town across the country, Harpreet is apprehensive about the move despite his parents' assurance that it will be an adventure. Harpreet begins to wear colors for not-so-happy occasions: He wears blue to the airport because he's nervous and gray when he's sad. Most often of all, however, Harpreet wears white, as he feels shy and doesn't want to be seen. Will Harpreet ever feel like his cheerful self in his new home? Kelkar's telling of Harpreet's story is crisp and straightforward, and Marley's bright illustrations tactfully and subtly convey cultural differences that make Harpreet feel different from and invisible to his peers. In the lunchroom scene with all the other children, for example, Harpreet has in front of him a large plate of traditional Indian chapati (bread) and dal (lentils), whereas his peers are shown munching on more "American" dishes (like cake). An afterword by Simran Jeet Singh, a scholar and professor of Sikhism, helps contextualize this story for readers who are not familiar with the religion.This simple yet sensitive story about a child coming to terms with things beyond his control will resonate across cultures. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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School Library Journal : Pre-Gr 3-A book bursting at the seams with ingenuity and creative spirit. When Joseph's overcoat becomes "old and worn," he snips off the patches and turns it into a jacket. When his jacket is beyond repair, he makes a vest. Joseph recycles his garments until he has nothing left. But by trading in his scissors for a pen and paintbrush he creates a story, showing "you can always make something out of nothing." Clever die-cut holes provide clues as to what Joseph will make next: windowpanes in one scene become a scarf upon turning the page. Striking gouache, watercolor, and collage illustrations are chock-full of witty details-letters to read, proverbs on the walls, even a fiddler on the roof. Taback adapted this tale from a Yiddish folk song and the music and English lyrics are appended. The rhythm and repetition make it a perfect storytime read-aloud.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada

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Book list Poverty is a great leveler of society’s uneven factions and nowhere was this more evident than in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. Careful and responsible, Birdie must find the funds to support her widowed mother and feeble grandmother. She is sent to Oxford where her sister, Frances, has married into old money. Once there, however, Birdie finds her pedigreed in-laws no better off now that Frances’ husband has absconded with the family fortune. Through Frances’ volunteer position with the local orphanage, Birdie meets 11-year-old Meg, one of the so-called “big girls” whose chances of adoption shrink with every birthday. Meg is convinced her mother, Charlie, would never have abandoned her to such a hopeless fate and clings to the fantasy that she’ll return for her. And return she does, thanks to Birdie’s kindness, Charlie’s ingenuity, and their unconventional partnership as proprietors of a brothel. As she did in The Help (2009), Stockett again satirizes the hypocrisy underpinning much of the early-twentieth-century South in a saga populated with memorable characters who rely on stock-in-trade pluck and sass to right all wrongs.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The enormous success of The Help as a novel and as the source for the Academy Award–winning film has left readers longing for Stockett's second novel.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Library Journal Stockett's second novel (following her blockbuster debut, 2009's The Help) is set in the American South during the Great Depression. The story alternates between protagonists Birdie Calhoun, who arrives in Oxford, MS, to ask her sister Frances for money to avoid foreclosure, and 11-year-old orphan Meg LeFleur, who is eager to be reunited with her mother. As the plot progresses, Birdie dates a complicated man, additional characters create a brothel to generate income, and a Gatsby-esque couple, who initially adopt Meg, face a crisis. While there is much happening in this novel, the strongest moments involve the bitterness of an affair surrounding Meg's parentage and Birdie learning that her sister's husband has a secret that affects his reputation. The women in this novel are distinct and memorable; however, the pacing is uneven. As the characters reckon with their situations, the plot gains momentum, only to lag again once the details of other storylines intervene. VERDICT Although there will be high demand for Stockett's return to fiction, fans hoping for a novel as dynamic as The Help might be disappointed.—Tina Panik

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Kirkus Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women. This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation inThe Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries. Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly Stockett’s vibrant follow-up to her bestselling 2009 novel, The Help, traces the intersecting lives of an exasperated older sister, a precocious orphan, and an enterprising woman in 1933 Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur endures a miserable existence at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls in Oxford. Singled out by the cruel director, Meg is forced to toil in the institution’s offices rather than attend school. Too old to be adopted, she counts down the days until her 12th birthday, when she’ll be sent to work in a Biloxi cannery—though she still clings to hope that the mother who abandoned her might return. Meanwhile, Birdie Calhoun, 24, is forced into action when back taxes threaten the rural home she shares with her mother and grandmother in the Delta. She travels to Oxford to ask her younger sister, Frances, for help, only to discover that Frances’s supposedly charmed life is far less so than it seems. There, Birdie crosses paths with Meg and Charlie, a down-on-her-luck woman with a wild idea for making a fortune and reclaiming control of her life. The pace slackens at times, but Stockett holds the reader’s attention with her colorful characters. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this offers a memorable view into the impossible choices faced by women in the Great Depression. Agent: Kim Schefler, Levine Plotkin. (May)

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School Library Journal : Gr 5–8—Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. Bod's love for his graveyard family and vice versa provide the emotional center, amid suspense, spot-on humor, and delightful scene-setting. The child Bod's behavior is occasionally too precocious to be believed, and a series of puns on the name Jack render the villain a bit less frightening than he should be, though only momentarily. Aside from these small flaws, however, Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family.—Megan Honig, New York Public Library

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