My Beautiful Failure
The haunting account of a teen boy who volunteers at a suicide hotline. . . and falls for a troubled caller.
Billy is a sophomore in high school, and twice a week he volunteers at Listeners, a suicide hotline. Jenney is an “Incoming,” a caller, a girl on the brink. As her life spirals out of control, Jenney’s calls become more desperate, more frequent. Billy, struggling with a deteriorating relationship with his depressed father, is the only one who understands. Through her pain, he sees hope. Through her tears, he feels her heart. And through her despair, he finds love. But is that enough?
Acclaimed author Janet Ruth Young has written a stunning and powerful story with no easy answers; it is about pain and heartbreak, reality and illusion, and finding redemption and the strength to forgive in the darkest of times. #mhyalit Amazon IndieBound
"Like the realistic novels of Todd Strasser, this compelling title places a young person in a moral quandary that could literally mean the difference between life and death." Booklist More Reviews...
Billy is a sophomore in high school, and twice a week he volunteers at Listeners, a suicide hotline. Jenney is an “Incoming,” a caller, a girl on the brink. As her life spirals out of control, Jenney’s calls become more desperate, more frequent. Billy, struggling with a deteriorating relationship with his depressed father, is the only one who understands. Through her pain, he sees hope. Through her tears, he feels her heart. And through her despair, he finds love. But is that enough?
Acclaimed author Janet Ruth Young has written a stunning and powerful story with no easy answers; it is about pain and heartbreak, reality and illusion, and finding redemption and the strength to forgive in the darkest of times. #mhyalit Amazon IndieBound
"Like the realistic novels of Todd Strasser, this compelling title places a young person in a moral quandary that could literally mean the difference between life and death." Booklist More Reviews...
Things I Shouldn't Think
Seventeen-year-old Dani Solomon is not a violent person, but she has violent thoughts. Cruel thoughts. Harmful thoughts. Dangerous thoughts. She thinks about calling her gay best friend a freak. She thinks about knocking her mother off a ladder. Worst of all, she thinks about killing Alex, the child she babysits.
To protect Alex from herself, Dani tells his mother. And it doesn’t take long for the story to leak, for Dani to be persecuted and ostracized from her community and peers for a crime she hasn’t even committed.
Janet Ruth Young writes convincingly about mental illness. Dani’s disorder is based on a real form of OCD and her treatment incorporates actual psychiatric methods, making Things I Shouldn’t Think (formerly published as The Babysitter Murders) an authentic read that is impossible to put down. #mhyalit #ownvoices Amazon B&N IndieBound
* "Provocative exploration of a community's response to the mere possibility of a horrific crime…. A realistic and disturbing look at our cultural response to mental illness.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review) More Reviews...
To protect Alex from herself, Dani tells his mother. And it doesn’t take long for the story to leak, for Dani to be persecuted and ostracized from her community and peers for a crime she hasn’t even committed.
Janet Ruth Young writes convincingly about mental illness. Dani’s disorder is based on a real form of OCD and her treatment incorporates actual psychiatric methods, making Things I Shouldn’t Think (formerly published as The Babysitter Murders) an authentic read that is impossible to put down. #mhyalit #ownvoices Amazon B&N IndieBound
* "Provocative exploration of a community's response to the mere possibility of a horrific crime…. A realistic and disturbing look at our cultural response to mental illness.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review) More Reviews...
The Opposite of Music
Billy Morrison's father was the kind of dad a guy dreams of having. When Billy wanted a bike, his dad helped him restore a classic to perfection. When Billy said he wanted to be a songwriter, his dad taught him to sing the blues. But his dad just isn't the same man anymore.
Mr. Morrison doesn't eat, barely talks, and even refuses to listen to his favorite records. His depression is slowly crippling his family. And to save his father, Billy will have to face decisions almost too frightening to consider.
The Opposite of Music is a powerful and realistic debut novel about the lengths a family will go to in order to save one of their own, and the strength it takes to learn to ask for help. #mhyalit #ownvoices
Amazon B&N IndieBound
"A smoothly told and believably painful depiction of a family going down as it tries to save a drowning family member." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
More Reviews...
Mr. Morrison doesn't eat, barely talks, and even refuses to listen to his favorite records. His depression is slowly crippling his family. And to save his father, Billy will have to face decisions almost too frightening to consider.
The Opposite of Music is a powerful and realistic debut novel about the lengths a family will go to in order to save one of their own, and the strength it takes to learn to ask for help. #mhyalit #ownvoices
Amazon B&N IndieBound
"A smoothly told and believably painful depiction of a family going down as it tries to save a drowning family member." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
More Reviews...
