Stop Pretending

What happened when my big sister went crazy
by Sonya Sones

Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending : What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1999. ISBN 0439250706

This novel is a collection of free-verse poems all written by one poet, Sonya Sones. This novel is an exploration through a young girl's life as she deals with the hospitalization of her older sister for mental health reasons. Each poem is a stepping stone through her emotional roller coaster during a difficult time in her life. Some of the poems are simple transitions between events, while others have deep meaning and presence in the story. The poems in this book were meant to be used together to explain the story Sones has to tell. This novel is not overly sentimental, but it does contain serious and emotional subject matter. Readers may empathize or sympathize, but they will definitely have some kind of emotional connection to this story. There are happy, serious, and depressing moods that are exhibited through the poems. In Sones' free-verse poems there is not a prominent sound or rhythm. She mainly writes with emotional impact and a touch of figurative language and sense imagery. The intended audience for this novel is females grades six through nine.

The layout of the book is important to the story that is being told. The only illustration for this book are the three pictures on the dust jacket. The pictures display blurry images of a female with a camera. Two of the pictures are the same image. Before the story beings, the author provides an acknowledgements page where she gives thanks to the people who guided and supported her in the journey of writing this novel. There is not a table of contents or index to help readers find individual poems. However, there is an author's note in the back of the book that gives the readers an insight into Sones' motivation in writing this novel. In this note, Sones writes about the preceding and resulting events of the story. In her conclusion, Sones offers resources on seeking help for mental health problems for yourself or someone you may know by listing helpful company names and phone numbers. This is a great novel to open people's awareness to mental health disorders, and how a whole family is affected by this disease. I would recommended this book for school and public libraries.

When thinking about how I would integrate this book into a lesson I decided that I would like to do a unit on the book, but have little activities and extension with certain poems. One of those poems would be "Minus". I chose this poem mainly for the last stanza in the poem. After reading the poem aloud together and then silently on their own, the student will give their interpretation of "4-1=0". Students will write their thoughts on a post it before they leave class as an exit ticket. The next day the teacher will have arranged the common interpretations and present them to the class. 

Minus

by Sonya Sones

Last night

Sister wasn't there

to help me study for my math test.

Father tried to fill in

but he's never been as good at math

as her.

This morning

I'm sitting here

taking the test

but the numbers on the page

keep scrambling

in my head

and the only equation

I really understand is:

4 - 1 = 0.