Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Three teens who have hit rock bottom meet in a psychiatric hospital for their suicidal or self-destructive behavior. Speaking in the first person, all of them reveal the events and family situations that put them in this place. The voices are haunting, funny, sarcastic, and real.

Tony, Connor, and Vanessa connect with each other at a time when their lives seem devoid of hope -- will that connection help them heal, or just drag them down?

Students always responded to these books, but I, frankly, avoided them, believing that they were too raw or that they exploited serious issues for sheer dramatic impact. After reading the mesmerizing Identical, I saw the light.

Bibliotherapeutic value: A book that describes extreme psychic pain, the book provides the assurance that connecting with others over painful experiences can help the healing process.

Hopkins, Ellen. Impulse. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc./Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008.

ISBN:1416903577.  $9.99.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a high school freshman, and he sees the world a little differently. As he begins his high school career, he is still getting over his best friend's suicide the year before. He feels things deeply, he sees things deeply, but he is a boy in a bubble, so sweet and childlike that he's almost not of this world -- but when he does cry, he just can't stop.

No wonder that Charlie is an outcast at school. Then, a group of unconventional seniors take him under their collective wing. Soon, he is learning about punk rock and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, finding out what it's like for his best friend, who is gay but has to keep his relationship completely secret. Charlie, too, has a secret.

A slim, fast, fantastic read, The Perks of Being a Wallflower's beauty is all in the narrator, a lost kid who sees way too much.

Teachers with struggling readers have used this one in the classroom, and I've been curious about it for a long time because of comparisons to this and A Catcher in the Rye.

Bibliotherapeutic value: The homosexuality in this book is treated with empathetic care; one the one hand, Charlie is completely accepting, giving a vision of a non-judgemental world. On the other, the culture of the school promotes sameness, making it necessary to hide what should be a pretty simple romance -- all kinds of pain is created by this situation. Then there's Charlie's shocking secret. The entire book pivots on the dysfunction that occurs when they are forbidden to express what should be expressed. A deep, brilliant little book.

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV, 1999. 


ISBN 0-671-02734-4. $12.