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Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

Kendra has started to remember her abuse as a child, but she is unable to see her abuser’s face in her memories.  She believes she is being followed by her abuser, so she lives in fear that even as she works to remember, he is stalking her.  To cope with the pressure of the memories, Kendra cuts her arm, releasing all of her stress, anguish and pain and making it something she can handle.  Kendra also does amazing art work that reveals the pain of her abuse and the emotional toll it is taking on her.  Her mother, a professional artist, has been critical of the raw emotion of Kendra’s work, so Kendra hides her work from her.  Her father has become emotionally distant after Kendra told her parents about the abuse, so Kendra turns to her therapist, her art teacher, and her new girlfriend for support.  As Kendra’s memories build, readers will be unable to put the book down until all is revealed.

Rainfield, herself a survivor of abuse and cutting, has captured the situation with such power and ferocity that it can be painful to read.  Readers will find themselves in a vise of tension and menace that mirrors Kendra’s.  Rainfield has written a powerhouse of a book that is astoundingly honest and burningly real.  The character of Kendra is written with empathy and skill.  She never reads as a victim but as a heroine, seeking the truth about what happened to her.  The use of her art in the book to connect her to other people, speak when she cannot say the words, and scream for her pain is hauntingly real.

Get this into the hands of readers who enjoy tense, realistic reads.  The cover is beautifully done, capturing the cutting and the tension in a single image.  A brilliant book written in nervy honesty.  Appropriate for ages 14-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by:

• Book Addiction
• A Good Addiction
• TheHappyNappyBookseller
• Just Blinded Book Reviews
• Stacked

Scars. Cheryl Rainfield. 2010. WestSide Books. 250 pages.

"Someone is following me." I gulp air, trying to breathe.

Kendra has had a hard life. She's in therapy now. And she's trying her best to recover her memories, recover her life. But when the novel opens, she can't remember her abuser. She remembers the abuse--the sexual abuse. But something is keeping her from seeing the face of her abuser. The face of the man who had tormented her for over a decade.

Kendra is convinced that this man is not finished with her yet. She feels that she is being followed, being stalked. That this man is leaving her messages, leaving her threats. Reminding her that if she tells, she'll die.

So yes, Kendra has had a hard life. And her home life is challenging to say the least. Her relationship with her parents is tense. She doesn't get along with either her mom or her dad. Kendra is angry that her mom has failed to support her in many ways. That her mom failed to listen to her as a child the few times Kendra tried to let her mom know she was being hurt. Her mom also has a hard time accepting that her daughter is a lesbian.

One way she copes is by cutting. Cutting herself numbs her emotionally. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, whenever the pain becomes too much, Kendra resorts to hurting herself. Another way she copes is with her art.

While Scars is a fast-paced novel dealing with hard issues, it's also a love story. Kendra has fallen in love Meghan, and Meghan has fallen in love with her. With Meghan she is able to be herself, to talk and have someone really listen, really understand.

Scars is an emotional, compelling novel. Kendra's story is haunting and the threats she faces are all too real. Scars is a book that is hard to put down.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

If you're reading this on a site (other than Becky's Book Reviews or Becky's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Eugene H. Rubin, MD, PhD is Professor and Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis – School of Medicine.  Charles F. Zorumski MD is the Samuel B. Guze Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis – School of Medicine, where he is also Professor of Neurobiology.  In addition, he is Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Director of the Washington University McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology. Together they wrote, Demystifying Psychiatry: A Resource for Patients and Families, which offers a straightforward description of the specialty and the work of its practitioners.  In the excerpt below we learn about the prevalence of psychiatric disorders.  In the original article below they argue for funds to support drug prevention rather than for research for the resulting medical problems.

Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the leading causes of death in the US. This is well known. What is less well known is that cigarette smoking (nicotine dependence) is the most important preventable contributor to these causes of death and alcohol abuse is the third most important contributor. These two legal substances have substantial addiction potential and together account for more than 400,000 deaths per year in the US. Once a young person smokes more than about 100 cigarettes, his or her chances of becoming addicted are substantial. Long term risky drinking predisposes a person to many health consequences in addition to enhancing the risk of becoming alcohol dependent. Risky alcohol use is defined as drinking 5 or more alcoholic beverages (12 oz beer equivalents) over a few hours on repeated occasions (actually, it is 5 drinks for men and 4 for women).

When misused, alcohol can lead to job loss, destruction of relationships, and a myriad of physical ailments not to mention its contribution to increased rates of traffic accidents, violence, and suicides. Alcohol-related disorders are major reasons why our emergency rooms (ERs) are so busy.

Cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin are illegal drugs that with repeated use can take over a person’s ability to behave rationally. These addictive drugs have severe physical and psychiatric consequences. They destroy relationships as well and harm society in obvious ways. They also increase our health care costs and tie up our ERs.

All of these drugs, including nicotine and alcohol, hijack the brain’s motivational system and hamper its executive system (the part of the brain that helps us think, plan, and learn). Each drug interacts with the “wiring” of these brain systems in different, but related, ways. The cigarette smoker who reaches for a smoke before getting out of bed in the morning, the alcoholic who needs an eye-opener to start the day, and the woman who prostitutes herself in order to get her next injection of heroin – all are responding to the control of an abused substance.

Alphin, Elaine Marie. 2000. Counterfeit Son. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 180 pages.

He chose the Lacey family at first because of the sailboats.

This was completely an impulsive read. There was no urgency in getting to it. It's not a new book. (Though I believe it is soon to be reprinted soon in paperback by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. January 2010, according to B&N.) But the moment I picked it up, the moment I read the first page, I just had to keep reading this one. It was so very readable, so very compelling. Which--just so you know--was so unexpected, because this is not a book in my comfort zone, this genre is not one I usually read. At all. And yet for some reason, it grabbed my attention from the start.

Long story short, I was surprised by this one. And I definitely recommend it! It is the 2001 winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.

What is it about? It's about a son who hates his father. With good reason. Cameron, our narrator, is a young boy--fourteen, I think--who has been through so much. His father, a man he calls Pop, is a serial killer and child abuser. But there is light, there is hope. Now that his father is dead--killed in a police raid--Cameron sees his chance. He wants a new life, a real life. By claiming to be someone he's not, by pretending to be one of the victims, Neil Lacey. But will this plan work? Or will his past catch up with him?

You can read an excerpt here.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

If you're reading this on a site (other than Becky's Book Reviews or Becky's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Liam is handsome as his striking model mother is beautiful. He wears the best designer clothing, he has style, he has magnetism, he does not have his father's love.

Caught in a compromised position, drunk, on top of his father's desk, with an ugly girl he normally would not even glance at, Liam is sentenced to moving to Nevada with his grandparents, his version of Siberian exile with Stalin as his roommate. His beautiful but emotionally blugeoned mother intercedes by leaving his uncle's telephone number for Liam to call and beg mercy. Now Aunt Pete is quite a difference from the grandparents, and a secret solution kept from his father. Liam packs his amazing wardrobe and toiletries to find himself in a roach-infested trailer without a closet or an iron. As the story unfolds, the reader sees that Liam's mother is not the only casualty.

Written in her amazingly funny, poignant style, Going delivers another illuminating teenage story for us to consider. If you have not read Saint Iggy or Fat Kid Rules the World....stop that right now! Love the cover, btw.

ENDERS Rating: More, more!!!

K.L. Going's Website

Here is a perfect example of the reason why I love going to the public library to browse books. Yes I get invited to a few previews every year, and yes I try to keep up with the professional journals, but nothing will ever replace browsing a shelf. I am taken with titles and covers and upon reading the blurbs I decide what to check out. On my last trip, I picked up this gem of a novel and am eager to share it with you.

Delores, or Itch as she's known to her family, has been living with her Gram and Gramps since her mom decided to leave. She's a girl who collects favourite words, does some serious thinking on her swing in the backyard, loves hanging out with her best friend Bailey, and is a bit of a kindred spirit with her Gramps. When Gramps dies, Itch is upset that Gram wants to move up to Ohio and leave every single memory of him behind.

Once in Ohio, Itch gets a bit of sunshine when she sees that the county fair starts that night. When she goes to check out the grounds on the way to the local Woolworth's, she is beckoned over by a girl in a sequins outfit and Shirley Temple hair who needs help with a zipper. Little does she know that this is the beginning of a complicated friendship between the two.

Once school starts, Itch is eager to be Gwendolyn's (or Wendy as she's known at school) official friend, which is hard since she is friends with popular girls Anna Marie and Connie and she attends lots of dance classes. But once Itch gets her mind to something, she stays true to it, and soon Itch and Gwendolyn are hanging out. Gwendolyn's other friends are surprised when Itch says she's been up to Wendy's room...most of her friends aren't allowed over. Itch wonders why that is, but soon she begins noticing some things about Wendy that just don't seem right. Will Itch have to courage to ask the hard questions and expose what is going on?

Michelle D. Kwasney has written a poignant story that packs a punch. Family structures, friendship boundaries, the realities of abuse are all explored with aplomb. The dialogue between the middle schoolers of the 1960s rings true, and Itch's relationship with her Grams grows so nicely throughout the book, readers will feel privileged to get to witness it. Gwendolyn and her mother's relationship is harder to look at, but Kwasney does it right. The frightening aspects of the abuse are not overdone, but they do not all appear off page either. The amazing thing is that this doesn't feel like a message book...it simply is a great story about two families.

First off, congrats to the photographer whose work made the cover. Anyone will be drawn to the cover, and it does direct the reader to the book's content rather than "boing" you off in the wrong direction. Publishers are better at covers than they used to be, with online image files to choose and all. (Well, except when two books come out the same year with the same image. Ouch!) There used to be illustrators who, for example, saw the word "wedding" in their skim-through of the book, then created a cover with the setting, hair color, dress all wrong. Drives me absolutely bonkers! I so disgress....

Absolutely Maybe is absolutely a hit! Lisa does provides excellent characterization so that the reader, moi et vous, can picture even secondary characters like Chessy, Twig, Sammy and Jess so well that we move into their stories. Our three main adventurers, in Hollywood's Green Hornet, take off from Florida to Southern Cal for Hollywood/Daniel to make his mark in as a gifted film student at USC, Ted to work for an aging film star (thanks to Maybe), and for Maybe to maybe find her biological father after struggling through homelessness.

Best of all: such an entertaining romp of writing that shows how young adults have what it takes to save themselves. Brava!


ENDERS Rating: Buy it, read it, pass it on!

Lisa Yee's Website
Lisa Yee's Blog

Chaltas, Thalia. 2009. (Pub April 2009) Because I Am Furniture. Viking. 356 pages.

I am always there.
But they don't care if I am
because I am furniture.

I don't get hit
I don't get fondled
I don't get love
because I am furniture

Suits me fine.

Anke has a difficult home life, though that is putting it mildly. Her father is abusive. She sees all. Hears all. Yet though a witness, she's somehow avoided being the subject of his abuse. (Though witnessing it is damaging enough as it is.) Can a teen girl break out of her silence and get help for her troubled family?

Because I Am Furniture is a verse novel about hard issues: physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. With all the negative going on in her life, Anke finds great joy in the one positive of her life: volleyball. Can what she learns on the court change her life off the court?

Here's one of the poems I enjoyed from the novel:

They call us
Nopes
the "out" crowd,
we don't fit their
dog-show guidelines
wealthy-beautiful.

We call them
Yups
they have to
all agree,
yup each other
every day on every thing.

And we say
Nope, don't
want any part
of your Yuppitude
so tight
society will burst
with any change
of thought.

But being a fractured, momentary gathering
and not an actual collective,
we say
Nope
individually
with scrambled cadence

and their
Yup
is way
louder.

(25-26)

Other reviews: Teen Book Review, The Compulsive Reader, Laura's Review Bookshelf, Flamingnet, Karin's Book Nook.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A friend is going through this. She needs legal advice and low-income resources.

Here’s the best of what I’ve found:

• WomensLaw.org - Incredibly clear and useful site with an excellent FAQ, state-by-state help, info on shelters, courthouse locations, legal forms, advice.
• Battered Women’s Justice Project - Contact list for state Domestic Violence coalitions - These groups can provide individual *advocates* who are familiar with state laws and resources.
• American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence pdf guide to attaining a lawyer
  

I’ve been finding a lot of links-to-lists-of-links. If you know of any *easy to use* resources that would help a mother with no money avoid a murderous creep, please comment, and thank you.

Writing for Young Adults

It occurred to me half way through TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyers that I am kinda thankful I don't have kids. You may be wondering what my personal life has to do with one of the most popular books of the decade. It's simple. I read this book, I am an adult, and the emotional and physical aspects of this book were intense.The physical longing of the two main characters is nothing short of obsessive. Almost frightening. The level of violence was a bit disturbing as well. This book is written for older teens? Thankfully this book had no violence. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but as I said, I am an adult.

Let's take it down a decade. A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS by Lemony Snickets. I voted for this one as one of the worst books ever. A children's book? The themes in this book are barely masked by the child characters. We read about substance abuse (alcohol), child abuse, neglect, incest, and slavery. Okay, maybe that one is pushing it, but the children are basically slaves to their uncle. This is a kid's book? These are the things we want to influence our children?

The last one I will bring up is ACCELERATION by Graham McNamee. This is the story of a kid who is working off some time in the lost and found of the subway. He finds a journal that turns out to be that of a serial stalker/potential serial killer. I liked this book, it was well written and kept my attention, but I question the logic in placing a kid in the role of stopping a psychotic killer. This book is very graphic and if I were a kid, I might be inclined to think I could do something like this.

Is there the slightest chance that when writers are working out the plots of their books that they are too concerned with selling books and not concerned enough about how their stories will affect young minds? Don't get lathered up, I am not placing any blame on any author…I am simply asking if there isn't some kind of a line that some authors are crossing over into gray area.

Some will argue that this is what kids want. Okay, I might buy this, but what if we are not giving them enough choices? What if we eliminated some of the sex, toned down the violence, and spent less time writing about ids doing drugs? What's the worse that could happen? We give kids stronger, more focused and versatile role models and things to occupy their time?

If the book industry offered up something that was fun, exciting, interesting, etc. and found a way to pull some of the kids away from the gaming world, got them out from in front of the TV, and reading more? Could this be a bad thing?

© Karen L. Syed

Blog Book Tour August Challenge #2

When Jennifer was younger, she couldn't imagine getting through life without the help of Cameron Quick. Jen was overweight, lispy, and a bit smelly, due to the fact that her single mom was working full time during the day, and in nursing school at night. But Jennifer's life was not nearly as scary as Cam's, as she witnessed one year on her birthday. Now she knew why she wasn't supposed to go over to Cameron's house.

Everything changed for Jennifer when Cameron just disappeared. The mean kids at school told her that Cameron was dead. When Jennifer went home crying to her mother, her mom did not deny the fact. And Jennifer just about shut down.

Now in a different part of the city and in high school, "Jenna" is completely transformed. She works hard everyday to keep the weight off, to remember that boyfriends like Ethan like "happy" girls, and that Jennifer Harris no longer exists. Her mom ended up marrying Alan, and nobody around knows anything about Jenna's past.

And then, Cam comes back.

Jenna doesn't know what to think. Cameron Quick is supposed to be dead! That's the main reason why Jennifer Harris is no more. Not only is Cam in town, he's in her school and looking to deal with the past. A past that only exists in Jenna's head as slippery memories. What will happen when Jenna and Jennifer collide?

Sara Zarr has written an intense story that called to my mind The Rules of Survival by Werlin. Jennifer didn't have any adult help, and as a result, she and Cam had to survive together. What they have is beyond love and friendship. The reader feels real empathy for most of the characters in the book (save Cam's dad), and I found myself willing Jenna towards the truth.

Every day another life is lost. That person may not be physically dead, but their will to succeed and thrive may have been horribly impaired, if not broken altogether.

As a writer it is my pleasure to create lives filled with joy and happiness.

Though these people are often forced to overcome huge obstacles, I can make it possible. This is not always the case in real life. Domestic violence is one of the most horrible crimes ever perpetrated against another human being. I know. I've been there.

Many years ago, I met and fell in love with a beautiful man. Eyes the color of a summer sky and a smile that could melt ice in the Arctic. After a whirlwind engagement we were married. This time that should have been the happiest of my life became a nightmare. I had married an abuser--a drug abuser, a people abuser, and a life abuser.

I had only recently begun my journey as a writer and I found myself slipping deeper into my make believe worlds to escape the threats and insults inflicted upon me on a regular basis. Though I'd lived a life of love and encouragement from my family, I let that slip away. I grew deaf to the words of support they offered to me and I became blind to the abusive words hurled at me with such bitterness and rage.

I lived to write. I sat at my computer for hours on end, avoiding the physical contact of a man who dared to tell me I had no beauty or value to humanity. Day after day, I found myself going to work, only to dread coming home for another round of "You will never amount to anything!" I closed myself off from friends and family and sunk further into the depths of worthlessness.

Then one day I reached the bottom.

Finally succumbing to what surely must be the truth, I made the heart-wrenching decision to stop the charade of becoming a writer. I had no talent, I had no ambition, and I had no value to humanity. My muse had deserted me, leaving me empty and unfulfilled. Hadn't it?

I gathered all of my written words and research, accumulated over two years, and I angrily shoved them into garbage bags and carried them to the curb outside. Surely, this would be the answer. If I stopped kidding myself, I could spend more time devoting myself to becoming a better wife and person.

Distraught and broken, I said a prayer and fell into bed. The next morning I awoke with a clear head and a newfound determination.

I stumbled from my room and out to the curb to find everything gone. The words and characters I loved so dearly and who had never let me down had been stolen from me. It was, as I recall, my first epiphany. I had let another human being steal my heart and cast it aside like useless trash. It took some time, but with the support of several fellow writers and some very dear friends, I was able to find myself. I found the strength and the determination to rebuild my life.

As a single person, I have had many struggles, from working multiple jobs to begging food from friends. I have maintained my desire to write and touch people's lives with my words and characters. Everything I do now is for me. I am strong, I am brave, and I am successful. I don't have the money of kings, but what I do have is of far more value. I have the spirit of life.

My writing is a part of me, as much as my arms and legs. Though I know I could survive without any of them, I will fight to the death to keep them all. My body is my own and I find pride in it. My mind is also my own and I find peace in it.

The value of human life can never be measured. The wealth of love can never be diminished. No human has the right to steal another's spirit or desire and with the support of those we love, nothing is impossible.

There is good in every person and with the proper nurturing and faith, that goodness can be enhanced and shared. With love the value of human life can always be increased.

2007--

Today my life is very different. This piece was originally written several years ago and I could not be more pleased with how my life has turned out. I am now married again to a man who finds joy in respecting and loving me. His support is unconditional and has a profound effect on me as a person. Even in my newly found happiness with him, I have held firm to my independence.

I once let domestic violence rule my life and for that I have no excuse, but today I let joy and inner peace guide me. I still have bad days where I am unsure of my place, but those feelings are my own and no one else controls them, or me.

If you are in a situation that is violent or abusive, physically or emotionally, find help. I would never tell anyone to leave, not my place. But find help! Seek the peace you deserve and allow nothing less in your life. You are a human, with feelings and needs, and no other human has the right to control them.

© Karen L. Syed

Author: Robert Heidbreder
Illustrator: Bill Slavin and Esperanca Melo
Published: 2004 Kids Can Press
ISBN: 1553379829 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

This feisty fossil fiesta of anatomically correct dinosaurs is not just a riot to read — it ignited an irresistable desire to make the trek to Drumheller (Alberta) to see this unbelievable landscape for ourselves. See you there!

Other books mentioned:

• Rattlebone Rock
• Follow the Drinking Gourd
• Sadako

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is Canada’s only museum dedicated to the science of palaeontology.Alberta’s rugged badlands hold the richest deposits of dinosaur fossils in Canada. Landmark fossil discoveries have been made there for more than a century, and new and exciting finds continue to be uncovered almost every year. Now imagine sleeping there. To find out about the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s family and youth camps, click here.