Round the Bend Author:Mitzi Dale From Publishers Weekly — Every day Deirdre comes home from school, heads right for her bedroom and stays there till dinnertime. Lying on her bed, she summons up an ongoing daydream of a breathtaking horse ranch where she is the boss and faces life-and-death decisions at every turn. But real life doesn't seem to work in this fantasy way. Confused ... more »by her anger for her parents and an adult world that seems ridiculous and transparent, Deirdre's "escape" sessions escalate until one day she "accidentally" sets fire to her bed. When the burns on her foot heal, Deirdre is sent to a home for troubled adolescents, and there must contend with a whole new set of problems. It's hard for the reader to like Deirdre at first, and there is just not enough background included to explain her anger and dissatisfaction. But the girl's gradual efforts to come to terms with her feelings constitute an absorbing journey, and Dale's terse, unsentimental style eventually captivates the reader. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-- The child of older parents, 14-year-old Deirdre lives in a tension-filled situation in which problems are ignored and love is rarely expressed. Her energies are directed to closing herself off from feelings and escaping into an elaborately constructed dream world. After she comes close to causing her own death, her parents realize that something must be done. Treatment consists of an unsuccessful and obviously ill-advised placement in a home for delinquent and disturbed youths, followed by commitment to a progressive psychiatric hospital. Here, Deirdre's recovery does begin. This first-person narrative is terribly, terribly sad; honestly grim in detail; and deadly earnest in intention and literary style. Readers will reach an abrupt semi-happy ending that would seem to be meant as encouragement to parents and teens going through hard times. James Bennett's I Can Hear the Mourning Dove (Houghton, 1990) is a far more powerful book about a mentally ill teen, as is Hannah Green's classic I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Holt, 1964; o.p.). --Libby K. White, Schenectady County Pub . Lib . , NY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.« less