The Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: The Impossible Knife of Memory
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Year: 2010
Pages: 391
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Themes: War, Family, PTSD, Suicide
Age Range: 9th-12th Grade

Summary: 
Hailey Kincain and her father Andy have been on the road for the last five years, trying to outrun Andy's post-traumatic stress disorder, Andy, a Gulf War veteran, has had trouble reintegrating into society since he came home from Iraq. Now that Hailey is in high school,  he's decided that it's time to stop moving, and they return to their hometown so Hailey can go to proper school.  While Hailey desperately wants a normal life, every day brings the constant fear that her father will fall victim to the demons that he's carried around with him since his time in the war. When she meets Finn, a hot boy from school who actually seems to like her, she dares to hope that maybe things are turning in her favor. But being home doesn't seem to be helping her dad recover from his PTSD, and when he starts using drugs and alcohol as a way to cope, Hailey worries that his terrible memories from the war will finally push him over the edge.

Review:
This young adult novel is a beautiful, heartbreaking, harrowing tale of the consequences of war on the people who fight it; consequences that affect not just them but everyone who loves and cares about them. Hailey-smart, mature for her age, forced to grow up before anyone should have to-is the caretaker of her little family. She spends so much time worrying about and caring for her father and his emotional symptoms that she really has no normal teen-age experience. She's constantly vigilant, attuned to every nuance of her father's behavior, prepared to do whatever it takes to keep him safe from himself. What she has to learn, and what Finn helps to teach her, is that her wanting him to be safe is not enough; he has to be willing to ask for and accept help to recover from his PTSD.

I think this novel will speak volumes to any young person who has personal experience with family members who have mental illness, especially PTSD. Hailey feels responsible for her father in a way no teenager should feel responsible for a parent. This is a fairly common theme in young adult literature, especially books that deal with issues of substance abuse, addiction, or mental illness-a theme which Anderson handles with her usual finesse. Anderson is a master at getting the reader to put themselves in the shoes of her characters, and she handles difficult subject matter with dignity and heart. You feel empathy, rather than sympathy, for Hailey, and for her father. Anderson portrays Andy in a way that shows how mental illness affects those living with it, and those living with those living with it, in a way that is non-judgmental and non-stereotypical.

There is a ton of fodder for discussion in this novel-but there are also a ton of possible triggers for people who have experiences like those in the book. If this book is used in a classroom setting, it's important to be clear with students and parents what the topic and themes are, and to make sure that students for whom these issues are raw and emotionally challenging have support. But I wouldn't dissuade anyone from using this book in class-I think it is very important to our culture for everyone, young and old, to understand the harm that is visited on soldiers and their families when they are sent off to war.

Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

Title:  Thirteen Reasons Why
Author:  Jay Asher
Publisher:  Razorbill
Year:  2007
Pages:  304
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Depression, Suicide, Living with Consequences, Interconnectedness
Age Range:  8th Grade and Above

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Review:
I originally found this book on a "Best YA Books" list, from Amazon or Scholastic or something, and thought it sounded like an interesting narrative structure.  Which it is, without a doubt.  But what really convinced me to pick it up was the reaction of some of the teenagers in my life to the book.  Without exception, the teens I know who've read it were profoundly moved and affected by it in some way.  And they seemed to fall into two distinct groups-those who identified more with Hannah, the girl who kills herself, or Clay, the narrator and our guide through the tapes.

For obvious reasons I am slightly more concerned by the youth who identify more closely with Hannah, but I also get it.  Hannah was a regular girl-not someone who was seen by others as odd, disturbed, eccentric, quirky, etc...She was just a girl, trying to fit in, with a "reputation" for promiscuity that was completely fabricated by some other kid who was desperately trying to do the same.  Hannah felt that her true self was slowly fading away, being replaced by this persona that was created for her, and which various people she came into contact with either contributed to or failed to confront.  Add to that sexual assault, isolation, and guilt, and you have a pretty powerful cocktail of teenage despair.  What the teens I know identified with was not so much her desire to end her life, but an understanding of how much of our self-image is wrapped up in how other people see us, and how loneliness and the feeling that you don't belong anywhere can damage a person's psyche.

The person I felt myself most drawn to, as did some of the youth I have discussed this book with, was Clay. Because I think that more of us find ourselves in Clay's position than in Hannah's (though far too many teens feel exactly as Hannah did).  Because Clay, even though he was on the list, was a good guy, who failed to do the right thing.  Of course, he didn't really know at the time what the right thing was-he is, after all, a teenager himself.  But of all of the people Hannah traces her suicide to, he is the most innocent, both to the reader and to Hannah herself.  In a way I felt like this was a cop out by Asher, to make the one person who is innocent of any real part in the downward spiral of Hannah's life the sympathetic narrator, but now I'm rethinking.  Because I think that perhaps the most powerful statement the book makes is that what we say and do matters, and that the small cruelties or deceits that we perform have consequences we can't always imagine.  Because despite the fact that Clay's part in Hannah's decision was as a result of an inaction, instead of an action, he still feels a strong sense of guilt and responsibility.  Too many of us do nothing.  We content ourselves with being bystanders, feeling better about ourselves because we are not perpetrators.  But it is our very passivity that allows rumors to go unchecked, unkind acts to go unchallenged, despairing people to remain isolated-doing nothing can sometimes be as bad as doing the wrong thing.

I think that this book would engender good discussion if used in a whole class or small group setting.  Because of the nature of the rumors about Hannah, and the not-at-all-graphic but still horrifying rape scene, I probably wouldn't use this book in the classroom below eighth grade.  But a mature 6th or 7th grader might be able to handle it, especially if they are already having to confront the things that Hannah faces in the book.

Teacher Resources:
Penguin Teachers' Guide
Bookrags Lesson Plans
TeacherVision Lesson Plans