19-year-old Charity Graff engages in self-harm. More specifically she cuts herself to numb emotions. In a series of raw journal entries, the confused teenager writes to her estranged father, filling him in on what's happened in her life since he left her nearly 18 years ago. Throughout the course of her letter writing, Charity chronicles her penchant for cutting, a serious struggle with depression and her inability to vocally express her feelings.
Bullied at school and ignored at home, Travis has a secret: cutting himself with a razor blade is the only thing that lets him control the pain in his life and find some peace. When he becomes friends with Chyvonne, a new girl at school, he doesn't know how to get close to her without revealing his secret and making himself even more vulnerable. Spending time with Chyvonne spurs Travis to try to discover why his mother can't seem to face his very existence. It's only when he learns about the art form of paper cutting that he realizes there might be other ways to make himself feel adrenalin-fueled and in control. Although self-harm through cutting is a problem usually associated with teenage girls, many young men are involved in different sorts of self-injury. This story explores a teenager's motivations for cutting and the options for overcoming the need to self-injure.
Shawn Johnson, the young woman from Des Moines, Iowa, captivated the world at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when she snagged a gold medal on the balance beam. Shawn Johnson: Gymnastics' Golden Girl chronicles the life and career of one of sport's most beloved athletes.
"Everyone faces troubles and challenges in their life - and self-harm is the way some people try to cope with the pressures. But what can trigger this way of dealing with painful feelings? And what are the alternatives? This book looks at the experiences of young people, shows how to reduce the risk and find support - and explodes some myths along the way."--Amazon.com.
Widely considered America's greatest gymnast ever, Nastia Liukin has inspired an entire generation with her brilliant technique, remarkable sportsmanship and unparalleled artistry. A children's biography, Nastia Liukin: Ballerina of Gymnastics traces the Olympic all-around champion's ascent from gifted child prodigy to queen of her sport.
Can the little blue Creeper convince his parents that not all cats are bad? Will he realize that being blue is not the end of the world. Filled with delightful illustrations, The Creeper and the Cat will delight young Minecraft fans. The winning story also explains the timeless importance of not judging others based on their looks.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
Dory finds herself involuntarily committed to a mental institution and has no memory of how she got there. She is assigned to a counseling group where she doesn't belong. The people in this group have a very peculiar addiction. The addiction to getting high by carving into their own bodies. They slice themselves open, down to the bone. Then they chisel and scrape the bone into dust and snort it, smoke it, or cook it and inject it. It's called Dusting and it is the most intense and dangerous high known to man. Dory's never heard of Dusting. The thought of someone mutilating their own body just to get high disturbs her to no end. She thinks these people are sick and wants nothing to do with them. But when the Dusters start to see her as a drug, Dory realizes that she's become a target. They want to use her. They want to get to her bones. Fresh bones give the most intense high and Dori has never been dusted. The hospital staff doesn't believe her. She's crazy, remember? It doesn't matter what she tells them. They keep her locked in a padded room and force her to keep going to the group. But Dory is not as crazy as they think and she must find a way to escape before it's too late. Like Girl Interrupted and The Yellow Wallpaper, The Bone Cutters is one woman's dark and surreal experience with a madness that is not necessarily her own.
“I play the 'What If?' Game all the time.It's a cruel, vicious cycle.” Meet free spirit Kaylee McMathews, the most popular girl in school. But when the teenager suffers a devastating loss, her sunny personality turns dark as she struggles with debilitating panic attacks and unresolved anger. Can Kaylee repair her broken spirit or will she forever remain a changed person?
