when A Teenage Boy Begins To Hear Voices, His Uncle Offers Him An Alternative Explanation In This Poignant, Provocative Novel From Award-winning Author Jonathon Scott Fuqua.

havre-de-grace, Maryland Isn't The Kind Of Place Where Miracles Happen. That's Why When Fifteen-year-old Penn Starts To Hear Voices, He Is Terrified. These Aren't Just Any Voices, Though - They Are The Thoughts Of People Close To Him. He Can Hear His Parents' Unspoken Gripes With Each Other. He Can Hear His Retarded Brother's Silent Anxieties. He Can Hear His Neighbor's Descent Into Quiet Desperation. And He Can Hear His Girlfriend's Tentative Feelings Of Tenderness. His Momma Wants Him To Go To A Therapist To Get Treated For Schizophrenia, But His Similarly Gifted Uncle Hewitt, A Former Police Chief Turned Town Drunk, Tells Him The Truth: Penn's Ability To Hear Other People's Thoughts And Take Away Their Pain Doesn't Make Him Sick. It Makes Him Special. From The Acclaimed Author Of The Willoughby Spit Wonder, Darby, And The Reappearance Of Sam Webber Comes A Compelling Story Of A Young Man's Struggle To Come To Terms With His Disability - A Novel Of Courage, Determination, And Hope.

fifteen-year-old Penn Lives In A Picturesque Chesapeake Bay Community With An Economically Depressed Inner Core That Tourists Rarely See. Penn, Too, Has A Hidden Reality. He Appears Ordinary, But He Hears Voices Accompanied By Blackouts, And It Is Only When His Father Accuses Him Of Drunkenness That Penn Reveals His Truth. His Mother, A Mental Health Worker, Fears Incipient Schizophrenia-there Is A Family History, Possibly Manifested In Uncle Hewitt, The Town Drunk-but Neither Penn Nor Dad Want To Think That Penn Is Crazy. Only Reluctantly Do They Go Along When Mom Insists That He See A Psychiatrist. Penn Favors Uncle Hewitt's Theory, That He Hears Voices Because, Like Uncle Hewitt, He Is One Of The Uniquely Gifted Pygmy People. As It Happens, Dad, Not Mom, Accompanies Penn To His Appointment With The Therapist, And When The Man Treats Penn With Little Sensitivity, Dad Becomes Angry And Leaves With Penn, Who Promises That He Can Prove He Is Not Crazy, With The Help Of Uncle Hewitt. The Plot Requires Much Suspension Of Disbelief. Penn Does Not Even Like Being Seen With His Uncle, So It Is A Stretch To Believe That He Would Listen To Him And Embrace His Theories. It Is Also Difficult To Credit That Penn's Mother Would Fail To Accompany Him To The Critical Appointment Merely Because Her Work Schedule Is Tight. In Addition, The Conveniently Un-empathetic Shrink Reads Like A Plot Device That Teens Will See Through. But Penn's Distress Is Palpable And His Story Elucidates A Much Misunderstood Condition, Reason Enough To Acquire The Book. Voya Codes: 3q 2p M J (readable Without Serious Defects; For The Ya With A Special Interest In The Subject; Middle School, Defined As Grades 6 To 8;junior High, Defined As Grades 7 To 9). 2005, Candlewick, 256p., Ages 11 To 15.

Categories:

• Teen & Young Adult
  
  
  • Literature & Fiction
    
    
    • Social & Family Issues
      • Family