Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

A girls sister goes crazy on Christmas and she doesnt know why she is mad because her sister has forgotten her name and her sister acts like she doesnt know her which makes her mad.

I have never read about mental illness written in such a beautiful way. Sonya Sones' falling rhythm poems tell the story of when her eldest sister (by seven years) had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. These short and powerful, easy-to-read and even easier to understand poems

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explicitly detail the author's feelings towards her situation, her sister, her mother, her father, her friends, herself. Devoured in a quick sitting, the impact of these poems are lasting. A beautiful way to deal with mental illness.

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I really enjoyed the format in this book. It is a definite easy read, and it is something kind of interesting to follow. I really enjoyed how it started all when the sister went insane, and she got sent to the hospital is really where everything started. The younger sister, (Cookie) is the

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narrator, so it's all from her point of view. She expresses her feelings, her friend loss, and he newly found love. This story is just really good, and interesting, and like I said before an extremely easy read.

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This was an amazing book, full of real emotion. This story is about an older sister begins to starts to have a mental breakdown, and the way her younger sister is affected. She's afraid of everything that's going on, that her friends will find out, and that she herself will go crazy as well. She

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wants her sister back, wants her to "stop pretending." This book shows the sister's anger, sadness and confusion as she watches her sister battle her sickness.

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I read this book when I was in about 5th grade and again in 8th. It's still stuck with me. I love the way Sonya tells this story and how well she's able to create so much depth and feeling in very few words. Love this story.

I loved this poetry book. I found it to be a very interesting way of documenting the authors feelings. It chronicles the months of Cookies life after her big sister has a mental breakdown and is institutionalized. It is full of emotion and demonstrates the grieving process that she goes through as

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she loses her sister, her family, and some friends. It describes the events that she is going through as well as wonderful memories that she has of her sister. The emotions described vary from grief, to anger, to guilt, and acceptance. They are extremely realistic and well documented. I wish this book had been out when I was growing up as it hit really close to home. I feel that it would be beneficial to read for anyone who may be going through a similar experience. The effect it has on a family is heartbreaking and a book such as this one could really help children. It is very memorable and well written. The poems often stand alone but put together tell a story. I highly recommend it.

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This insightful book contains poems that explore the emotions, thoughts, and fears that one sister feels about her older sister who has a mental illness. This series of poems promotes a realistic view of the various emotions and feelings a young teen girl goes through when dealing with her sisters

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mental illness. This is an excellent and very powerful book.

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Review from library copy

Based in the author's life and written in verse - what happens when a sibling has a mental illness

Sonya Sones grew to be one of my (recent) favorite authors after I read What My Mother Doesn’t Know, and soon after, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know. I went out and bought all her books after I read those two. But what I didn’t expect is that Stop Pretending, Sones’ first book, is an even

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better book than those that came after it.

Sones’ free-verse novel, Stop Pretending, does two amazing things that I haven’t witnessed in other free-verse novels so far. A majority of this book’s poems can be read separately from the others. They stand alone as very powerful works of poetry and don’t need the support of the “larger story.” At the same time, they all mesh together into that “larger story” that is hard to step away from, even with it being an emotional read. It’s the combination of these two effects that makes Sones such a great novelist and poet, all in the same work.

Being that this is strongly influenced by the author’s life growing up, I feel that it helped her create the very real main character. The poems bring the reader deep into the mind of this teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with her sister’s hospitalization. This can only come from someone who’s dealt with similar issues in real life. It also allows a reader, and even society in general, to consider all sides of the situation. It’s not just the patient who needs therapy, or just someone to talk to in general. It’s all members of a family, no matter how much they try to hide it.

Sonya Sones’ first book is by far my favorite of hers so far. It’s no wonder her books have gotten the attention they have.

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A series of free verse poems about when the author's older sister had a mental breakdown and was committed to an institution, this short book flew by as I read it. The author explores all of her emotions dealing with her sister's mental illness and her parents' inability to deal with it - anger,

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fear, sadness, and disbelief. Recommended.

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Cookie relates the experiences of her sister who’s gone crazy and is staying in a hospital and how it’s affecting the family. Cookie worries what her friends will think, that she herself will go crazy and mostly mourns her sister, missing who she was before. Eventually she comes to grips with

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it, with the help of being in love, learning to appreciate her sister’s lucid moments and recognizing that things will be OK.

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Intense, and important, especially because the author essentially is the narrator. But the poems do nothing for me except add white space and pages (of course, that's true with most novels in verse, but still...), and the whole thing seems simplistic. I think somebody needs to write a more in-depth

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book on the subject. And maybe from a younger brother's pov, to make it more unique. This is a quick read and might be significant to you or someone you know, so try it if you want to, but I wasn't wowed.

(Best as I can tell, it has no triggers, but if you're doing bibliotherapy don't forget to check with your client or student first.)

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