Tag Archives: Alcoholism

MG – Shark Teeth

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Winston, Sherri. Shark Teeth. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024, 978-1-547-60850-1. $17.99. 304 p. Grades 4-8.

Sharkita also known as “Kita” is constantly in fear of the other shoe dropping. She has assumed the role of “mom” too many times to trust that it won’t happen again. She’s been separated from her siblings and put in foster care by social services too many times to believe now that Mama is home and seems to have stopped drinking and going out with her friends that everything will be okay and that things have changed. When Kita’s new Assistant Principal and dance coach asks some questions about Kita’s homelife she is determined to keep her and her siblings together, so she lies to keep up appearances when the truth is Mama has been going out again and leaving the kids at home alone. With the fear of being separated from her siblings constantly looming, Kita feels more and more anxious and questions if being together and neglected by Mama is really what is best for her and her siblings.

THOUGHTS: Oof. This one hit hard. It touches on so many different topics in such a genuine and realistic manner that it is at times hard to read. You want what’s best for Kita and her siblings, but the reality of leaving/being separated from her mother and siblings is hard to grasp. 

Realistic Fiction

YA – The Glass Girl

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Glasgow, Kathleen. The Glass Girl. Delacorte Press, 2024. 978-0-525-70808-7. 464 p. $21.99. Grades 9-12.

Meet fifteen-year old Bella. With her parents’ fairly recent divorce, her beloved grandmother’s sudden death, and an ex-boyfriend who told her she’s “too much” as he broke up with her, nothing seems to be going right in her life. To compensate, Bella tries her best to keep it all together. She helps out with her very needing, annoying 7 year old sister; she acts like more of an adult when they stay at their dad’s apartment; she checks on her grandmother’s house for her mom; and she gets good grades – usually. Increasingly, Bella uses alcohol to escape the reality of her situation and ease the pain of seeing her ex with his new girlfriend. Everyone drinks, so she doesn’t see the big deal. Most of her friends are down for shoulder tapping to get a bottle of vodka and going to parties together, but Amber, who doesn’t drink, becomes increasingly worried about Bella. Then Bella starts losing fragments of time while drinking and eventually drinks so much that she wakes up in the hospital. Her only option now is rehab. But Bella isn’t an alcoholic, and she can stop anytime she wants. Her rehab roommates even call her Baby Bella because she just drinks. Will Bella be able to admit to her problems and start down the road to recovery, is she stuck in a downward spiral?

THOUGHTS: Addressing serious topics, like underage drinking, drug use, and self-harm, Glasgow creates characters readers will root for. Highly recommended for secondary collections where honest, character driven novels are popular.

Realistic Fiction

YA – Rainbow Volume 1

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Sunny. Rainbow! Volume 1. Illustrated by Gloomy. Graphix, 2024. 978-1-516-07731-1. 209 p. $25.18. Grades 8-12.

In Rainbow Volume 1 we meet Boo who is a high school student with bright pink hair, a complicated home life, and an extremely vivid imagination. When she sees the new student Mimi punch a student in the hallway, she has to deal with this new feeling she has for Mimi. Things get even more complicated when Mimi comes into the cafe where Boo works. Boo now is dealing with something new, these feelings she might have for Mimi as well as dealing with anxiety, school, work and an alcoholic mother. It all comes to a head when Boo’s mom ends up in the hospital, and Boo calls Mimi out of desperation because she doesn’t have anyone else. Will Boo lean into these feelings that she has for Mimi? Or will her vivid imagination cause her to never face reality?

THOUGHTS: This is very hard to read at times because there really isn’t a single adult in Boo’s life who is helping her. She is very clearly left on her own to handle everything and it can be frustrating when there are a handful of adults who could help her out and they just don’t. She does have a supportive boss, but Boo’s boss never really seems to catch on that something isn’t right. The situation with her mother is very toxic and unhealthy and may be upsetting to some readers. There is no on page romance; however, it is very clear that Boo is dealing with her sexuality and coming to terms with it. The illustrations are beautiful and really add to the dreaminess of the story (and how Boo sees the world), and the characters will make you want to come back for more. Would be a great addition to a high school collection or even for some 8th grade students (just be warned of the trigger warnings before handing to a student). 

Graphic Novel

MG/YA – Dealing with Addiction (Series NF)

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Dealing with Addiction. BrightPoint Press, 2023. 64 p. $33.05 ea. $$165.25 Set of 5. Grades 6-12.

Kaiser, Emma. Smartphone Addiction. 978-1-678-20380-7.
Llanas, Sheila Griffin. Drug and Alcohol Addiction. 978-1-678-20374-0.
Miller, Marie-Therese. Social Media Addiction. 978-1-678-20378-8.
Roberts, Kizzi. Gaming Addiction. 978-1-678-20376-9.
Voss, Elizabeth Hobbs. Vaping Addiction. 978-1-678-20382-5.

This reviewer evaluated Gaming Addiction and Smartphone Addiction. Each title in this series begins with At a Glance which provides readers with a quick, bulleted overview of the topic addressed. Statistics like “Researchers think between 1 and 10 percent of gamers become addicted” (Roberts 4) easily could be incorporated into basic student research or utilized for a lesson on summarizing research. The introduction gives readers an anecdote regarding the topic. In Gaming Addiction, Ben loses interest in activities with his friends, instead opting to beat his high score. Ben’s friends confront changes they’ve noticed in him. In Smartphone Addiction Riley realizes she needs help after hardly hearing her friends while she checks social media notifications on her phone and earning a poor grade on an English essay. Four chapters include What is ___?, The science of ___, The effects of ___, and Treating the ___ (___ = addiction the title addresses). Frequent color photos, charts, text box highlights, and bold-faced vocabulary words make this series highly accessible to secondary researchers. Each book concludes with a glossary, source notes, for further research, and an index.

THOUGHTS: Marketed as hi-lo YA nonfiction, the titles in this series are best suited to middle and high school libraries and would be a great update to addiction collections or for use with health classes.

616.85 Mental Disorders 
616.86 Substance Abuse

YA – Divine Rivals

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Ross, Rebecca. Divine Rivals. HarperCollins Publishers, 2023. 978-0-008-58815-1. 367 p. $18.99. Grades 9-12.

Divine Rivals introduces us to Iris whose brother has just left to fight in a war that is being waged between gods. Iris is trying her best at home, but with their mother addicted to alcohol and her job as a writer for a newspaper not going as well as she thought it would, things look bleak. In order to make things seem a little better, she writes letters to her brother that she slips under her wardrobe. However, the person who writes her back isn’t her brother… and she isn’t exactly sure who this mysterious person is. When Iris ends up at the front lines, with her rival from the newspaper Roman, she is forced to confront lots of things she has been ignoring.

THOUGHTS: This is a great young adult fantasy that has an extremely unique plot line, with wonderfully written characters. This will appeal to lots of readers, especially fans of Sarah J. Maas or Cassandra Clare.

Fantasy

MG – Falling Short

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Cisneros, Ernesto. Falling Short. Quill Tree Books, 2022. 978-0-062-88172-4. 292 p. $16.99. Grades 6-8.

Sixth graders, Isaac Castillo and Marco Honeyman, are best friends, next door neighbors, and complete opposites. Isaac is a tall, basketball star who struggles in school; smart as a whip, Marco gets mistaken for a kindergartner because of his short stature. What both of them share is mutual love and care and problematic fathers. Unable to cope with his alcoholism, the loving but troubled Mr. Castillo is estranged from his wife and son. On the other hand, Marco’s parents are divorced, and his father would rather write an alimony check than visit his son. The boys’ warm friendship stands up to the pressure when the pair start Mendez Middle School in California. Marco classifies the different students like fish, some are aggressives and some are community minded. In Falling Short, author Ernesto Cisneros makes a solid case that being community minded is possible and preferable. Having almost failed fifth grade, Latinx Isaac has to prove that he can make the mark, and perhaps ease some of his parents’ stress. Mexican-American and Jewish Marco, too, wishes to impress his neglectful father, a jock, who dismisses Marco’s scholastic achievements. The basketball team is a choice that fits both boys’ needs: Isaac can coach Marco in baller moves; Marco can be Isaac’s loyal study buddy. Determined to escape the taunts of the school bullies–especially basketball eighth grade standout, the looming Byron–Marco takes on becoming a basketball player as an intellectual pursuit. Motivated by Marco’s relentless efforts to learn how to play ball, Isaac disciplines himself to complete all homework assignments. Their bro’mance gets them through their respective feelings of inadequacy in either sports or studies and their family issues. Marco skips an elective course and completes Isaac’s missed homework assignment. Isaac convinces Coach Chavez that Marco will be a valuable player on the team. Told in alternating voices that mix feeling with humor, the story reaches a climax when Isaac’s dad suffers a car accident while driving drunk right before the big basketball tournament. To add to the tension, Marco’s errant dad comes to see him play at the tournament. Reading how these true friends push each other to achieve their goals and affirm themselves in the process imitates the deft moves of a satisfying game and does not fall short.

THOUGHTS: Author Ernesto Cisneros mixes lots of details in Falling Short that cater to the typical middle school student: description of basketball plays, mention of well-known basketball players, team spirit, an explosive farting episode. It also touches on the awkwardness and helplessness kids can feel when dealing with parental flaws. The book includes some nice touches that point to a better world: Coach Chavez throws Byron, the bully, off the team when he finds out Byron humiliated Marco; Marco has a short teacher who can be both self-deprecating and inspirational; there is a girl on the basketball team; some of the other team members also look past Marco’s lack of height and see his kindness. Spanish phrases are scattered throughout the book.

Realistic Fiction          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia

YA – Punching Bag

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Ogle, Rex. Punching Bag. Norton Young Readers, 2021. 978-1-324-01623-6. $17.95. 217 p. Grades 9-12.

As with his debut memoir, Free Lunch, Latinx author Rex Ogle is honest and sensitive in his recounting of his high school years with his volatile mother, Luciana, and abusive stepfather, Sam. At the book’s opening, Rex’s mother reveals that she has lost an infant girl, Marisa, while seven-year-old Rex was visiting his paternal grandparents. In front of her sensitive son, she is distraught with grief and places the blame at his feet. Ogle carries that guilt with him as he navigates his teen-age years protecting his half-brother, Ford, from the chaos erupting from domestic violence in their tiny Texas apartment. At times, this guilt is assuaged with the remembrance of Marisa, giving him the encouragement and strength not extended by other adults. Though his alcoholic stepfather beats his mother regularly, Rex’s mother refuses to press charges or escape. In fact, in a brief stint when Sam leaves her, she picks on Rex, goading him to hit her. Rex acts as the parent here. He has the maturity to see their household is toxic and to recognize his mother’s mental health issues. From conversations with family members, he gets an insight into the root causes of his mother’s and stepfather’s behaviors. However, he feels responsible for the safety of his younger brother and the financial stability of the family. He receives some emotional support from his grandmother and his mother’s sister; he is able to confess to his stepfather’s brother the physical abuse suffered in their family. Nevertheless,with little adult support from teachers or neighbors, young Ogle is out there on his own with the lone comfort of Marisa’s ghostly voice convincing him her death was not his fault. When Luciana and Sam repeatedly wind up together with little improvement, Ogle has to value his own life and aim for his own dreams to keep him resilient and hopeful. This memoir is an excellent example of bibliotherapy. Ogle does not gloss over the brutality and the bewildering reality of domestic violence and the devastating effect of a parent’s untreated mental health issues on her children. Ogle acknowledges this in the book’s preface with a disclaimer emphasizing his purpose for writing his story is to show that it is possible to survive. Students suffering the same trauma will appreciate his frankness. Contains an informative Q & A with author.

THOUGHTS: The account of domestic abuse as well as physical and emotional child abuse is constant, but Ogle is a talented narrator and compels the reader to endure it. Rex Ogle himself stands out as an exceedingly mature, resilient, compassionate person, despite a lifetime to being put down, parentified, terrified, neglected. It prompts the thought, where was this behavior learned. He records little resentment of being the person in charge of his younger brother. He willingly shoulders adult responsibilities around the house with hidden resentment and–mostly-controlled anger. The book delivers an important message to any students in similar circumstances.

Memoir          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia
362.7 Child Abuse

YA – Not My Problem

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Smyth, Ciara. Not My Problem. Harper Teen, 2021. 978-0-062-95714-6. $17.99. 359 p. Grades 9 and up.

Aideen Cleary has problems. She’s not doing so well in school, her best friend Holly has been drifting from her for the last couple years, and her mom’s occasional drinking binges that make her unfit to parent have Aideen worrying that social services will come knocking on their door any day now. But when she catches her enemy, Meabh Kowalska, throwing an embarrassing hissy fit in the locker room at school, she sees an opportunity to focus on someone else’s problems for a change. Aideen thinks over-achieving Meabh’s problem of just finding more time in her schedule is an easy problem to fix, but Meabh insists on a fool-proof solution. So she asks Aideen to push her down a set of stairs in exchange for a favor she can call in at any time. Though Aideen hesitates at first, given their history, Meabh is pretty easily able to convince Aideen to give her a good shove. Meabh’s ankle effectively sprained, the problem seems solved. Except for the witness to it all, a classmate named Kavi, who swears to secrecy but sees potential in the exchange he just witnessed. The next day, he brings Aideen a friend of his in trouble and asks her to help solve the problem, much like she did for Meabh yesterday. Thus begins Aideen’s semester of stunts, shenanigans, and some new relationships. Aideen’s life might be spiraling out of control, but fixing others’ lives and collecting favors in return seems like a good deal for her. For now.

THOUGHTS: Aideen is foul-mouthed but laugh-out-loud funny in this sophomore novel from the author of last year’s The Falling in Love Montage. Some Irish colloquialisms might trip up teen readers here and there, but it’s part of the experience of reading this story set in Ireland. A story with romance though not necessarily a book I’d classify as romance, I highly recommend this book for YA collections looking to add  LGBTQ+ representation. Aside from a couple sentences mentioning Aideen’s coming out at a young age as difficult, the characters in this book are, as Aideen says, “super woke,” so this book is not about Aideen’s struggles coming out or dealing with bullying because she identifies as lesbian. Her fading friendship with Holly and budding new friendship with Kavi takes just as much (if not, more) of the narrative as her slow-burn enemies-to-lovers relationship with Meabh. Aideen’s complicated relationship with her mom and her mom’s alcoholism and poverty also dominate much of the narrative. While cliche, it’s definitely accurate to say this book has a bit of everything.

Realistic Fiction         Sarah Strouse, Nazareth Area SD

YA – Middletown

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Moon, Sarah. Middletown. Levine Querido, 2021. 978-1-656-14042-8. 288 p. $18.99. Grades 7-12.

What do you do when your mother is an alcoholic assigned to rehab, and your sixteen-year old sister disguises herself as Aunt Lisa to prevent the two of you from being sent to foster care? Thirteen-year-old, Caucasian Eli who identifies as a boy keeps a lot of secrets from good friends: Latino Javi, who is gay, and her crush, Indian-American, Meena. In the ninety days Carrie Reynolds is confined to rehab, her children eke out a life with funds Eli has squirreled away from their mother’s pay checks. But when Eli gets suspended from school for punching bully, Kevin, the same week older sister Anna goes AWOL with her boyfriend, a social worker comes knocking, and Eli and Anna slip out the window. Their road trip brings them to the doors of their respective fathers (John is a role model and completely surprised by his new offspring; the other dear- remembered Sam is deceased but leaves them an extensive letter confessing his care for them both, telling them about saving accounts he opened for them, and revealing that he is gay). Their limited funds, though, force them to head to their estranged Aunt Lisa’s house in Oxbridge, Vermont. She, too, is a recovering alcoholic who lives a simple life sans television or cell phones, works at a college bookstore, and keeps chickens. In the last weeks of their mother’s rehabilitation, the siblings bond with Aunt Lisa, adjust gladly to a non-parentified life, and benefit from attending Al-Anon meetings. When Mom returns from rehab, life is more stable and the siblings’ futures seem on the upswing. Eli is truthful with both friends and receives their full acceptance and understanding, Anna graduates and looks forward to college, and their mother and Aunt Lisa reconcile and support each other.

THOUGHTS: Author Sarah Moon touches on important issues: alcoholism, gender identity, money problems, domestic instability, parental neglect. The narrative is compelling, albeit with contrivances: would a judge grant “Aunt Lisa” custody without both siblings present?; parents are not obliged to attend report card conferences; the social worker would expect to see Anna, Eli, and Aunt Lisa. Still, the plot describing how alcoholism affects the family, and Eli’s struggles with gender are handled well and are important topics for students to see in books.

Realistic Fiction          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia