HCI Teens

Louder Than Words: Emily

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

There were two things that drew me to this book. Firstly, the title is Emily and, hey, that’s my name, too! Secondly, and more importantly, the story revolves around a young girl called Emily whose life is plagued by physical illnesses, which she endearingly calls “Emily flu.” Could this book possibly be written about me?

Alas, whilst I just suffer from chronic hypochondria, literary Emily has a genuine disease; the rare and incurable West Nile Virus. But even if your name isn’t Emily, and even if you’re fit and healthy, chances are you’ll be able to draw something positive from this tale.

Emily is a true story, an autobiography of one teenage girl and what it’s like when you’re forced to take a back seat in life. From school work to holidays, Emily is dealt a harsh hand. Drawing on her Mennonite faith, Emily uses her religion as a crutch to help her deal with the roller coaster of emotions that comes with her illness. Zapped of energy and plagued with dizzy spells, every day life is a nightmare for Emily, who yearns for the things we take for granted and often complain about, such as the ability to attend school and have achy legs from an arduous day at work. Written in diary form with short entries, Emily is the perfect book to dip into if you’re not an avid reader, although it can, at times, be void of much storyline and substance, so it may not be to everyone’s taste.

Emily’s enduring spirit and sense of determination displays a strong, focused view of the female gender. A quirky read—at times focusing on the monotonous activities of daily life, reflecting Emily’s isolation and confinement, which will make you think twice before moaning about your busy work schedule.

Written by: Emily Ray, December 29th 2009

Louder Than Words: Marni

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Marni Bates

HCI Teens

Louder Than Words is a series aimed at teenagers about teenage experiences. Atypically, the volumes are also written by teenagers. It may seem bizarre to ask teenagers to write memoirs—as Marni says, her siblings laughed—but Louder Than Words is dedicated to “reinforce[ing] the message that the experiences of teenagers and their perceptions and beliefs regarding [their] experiences have validity.”

Marni Bates comes from a dysfunctional home. Her parents are estranged long before they divorced, and her sister is her rival. Young Marni wants to be loved, so she plays into the manipulative games her father contrives. The shocking realization that her father sees her as a tool, rather than a daughter to love, is the first of many sledgehammers to Marni's self-esteem.

Trichotillomania is a stress-related disorder. People pull their hair out as a means of coping, not unlike cutting or other forms of self-mutilation. Marni begins to pull at her eyebrows, taunted about her unibrow, a term she doesn’t even understand. Soon she is tugging out her eyelashes, her bangs, and the hair behind her ears. She knows she’s gone too far, but she can’t stop herself. Still, she hides the results of her pulling well, giving the disorder free reign over her mind and body.

Marni is a self-possessed young woman. Nineteen at the time of her writing, she has come to a mature understanding of herself and the other people in her life. Teenagers often are not given credit for having this kind of self-awareness, and many times they’re not given an opportunity to prove they have it.

There are a few points in Marni's story that seem slightly bent by her lingering emotion. For instance, her descriptions of her father are not at all kind—but this is to be expected of someone who is still living this period of her life. Marni continues to battle her disorder, and it is because of this that the book does not really have a proper ending. The story stops, but is not over.

Marni does not make false promises or pretend she has reached a happily ever after. This may be one of the best messages for teens: acknowledging that life is not a series of neatly packaged stories with beginnings, middles, and ends.

I blazed through this small book in a matter of hours. The writing is human, humbling, and honest. The Louder Than Words could do a lot of good in high school health classes. I know I would have been happy to read it.

Written by: Richenda Gould, December 21st 2009

Louder Than Words: Chelsey

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:57:00 +0000

By Chelsey Shannon

HCI Teens

Chelsey is a thin volume dealing with a heavy topic: it's the first-person account of a teenager in Cincinnati, Ohio who loses her father to violence and her journey of grief, adjustment, and self-discovery over the ensuing few years.

Chelsey Shannon is a week shy of her fourteenth birthday when she learns that her father, who'd been working and vacationing in the Caribbean with his girlfriend, has been shot and killed by a would-be burglar who broke into his hotel room. Having lost her mother to cancer when she was five, she suddenly finds herself alone. She is not literally alone—she is blessed with a large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins—but in a very real sense she is. As she says, “I was no longer anyone's child.” The senseless violence of her father's death a day before his return home only compounds her grief. Having been raised solely by her father most of her life, the two were extremely close.

We follow Chelsey as she moves in with her Aunt Chris. While she loves her aunt, it is not an easy fit for either of them. Chelsey can't help but feel like a burden while her aunt, whose adult sons have moved out of the house, has a hard time getting used to having a teenage girl in her care. Chelsey's biracial identity (her mother was white and her father black) also makes her feel out of place when living with her white aunt. In addition, Chelsey struggles to fit in at her new high school, the School for Creative and Performing Arts. Although she has chosen to attend the school herself, the shy and still mourning adolescent has a difficult time making friends.

One of the most poignant sections of the book is when, several months after moving in with her aunt, the family decides to sell the house where Chelsey and her father lived and she must say goodbye to the place where she and her father shared so many memories. Another is when her father's girlfriend recounts in detail the events of her father's last evening. The failure to apprehend her father's murderer makes closure that much harder. As she writes in a letter to her father read at a memorial service a year after his death, “What hurts the most is that you were killed, and that no one has been caught so far.”

There is no single cathartic moment of healing for Chelsey, but rather a gradual acceptance and healing. She slowly opens up to her classmates and forms new friendships, spurred in part by her participation in creative writing programs and the Young Women's Feminist Leadership Academy. She discusses her evolving spiritual and religious identity, which culminates in her rejection of Catholicism and identification as an atheist.

While we can all imagine the horror of losing a parent at a young age, particularly through a violent act, Chelsey is successful because it follows the protagonist through the aftermath of this life-altering event to show how her irrevocably changed life continues. Bravo to Chelsey Shannon for baring her innermost emotions in this honest and courageous memoir.

Written by: Karen Duda, December 12th 2009