October 10th is World Mental Health Day. Some of my favorite books deal with different mental health issues. This is a topic that is personal to me. I have many mental health issues. Primarily am schizophrenic, and have OCD.
In the future I will showcase a whole post focused on each of my disabilities. However the fiction books for both that I feel comfortable recommending are kind of slim pickings.
I also want to limit the books I recommend to stories where the protagonist is experiencing the mental health issue. Not a family or companion story. Not that those aren’t important. But there is often there is often an issue with the person with a mental illness lacking agency.
1) Chaos Theory
Another hit for the author of Dear Martin. Nic Stone’s Chaos Theory focuses on two protagonists from different backgrounds dealing with a mental health issues. Shelbi is dealing with bipolar disorder and has just switched schools after an incident. She thinks that she won’t be at the Windward Academy long and that there is no point in making friends. After all what her classmates don’t know they can’t use against her.
Meanwhile Andy Criddle is a politicians son dealing with grief and addition. After Shelbi sees Andy at a particularly low point the two begin to understand each other and fall in love. However their pasts threaten to pull them both apart.
Amazon: Chaos Theory
2 Finding Junie Kim
Finding Junie Kim is one of my favorites from a few years back. Not only is it a great piece on the Korean War and its aftermath. It is a good story for children and young adults dealing with depression an grief. I’ve not seen any other piece deal with suicidal ideation as delicately for the middle school age.
Junie Kim just wants to fit in, she’s dealing with racist bullying at school. When Junie’s history teacher assigns a report to learn about a family member. And Junie gets to interview her grandparents learning about their hardships during the Korean War. When the racist bullying increases; she must draw strength from her family stories. Junie has to decide weather to stay quiet or speak out.
Amazon: Finding Junie Kim
3) Ain’t It Funny
Note: This Book will Not Be Out Till October 15th
Ain’t It Funny deals is a great middle grade entry for dealing with mental health. Eleven year old Maya’s is dealing with her parents separation. Her father wants to focus on his new stand up comedy career. Her mother is focused on improving sales in their Russian bakery. Meanwhile Maya’s fears and compulsions about germs become more insistent. However she is also dealing with her culture’s focus on not showing weakness and is instead focused on being strong.
Being strong is hard though. When Maya sees a chance, by performing at sixth grade talent show, to prove that stand up has a place in both her parents lives. This will hopefully bring her parents back together.
Conquering her fears against her new obsessions and compulsions and her family falling apart will prove harder than she expected.
Amazon: Aint It Funny
4) History Is All You Left Me
This YA drama deals with grief, mental illness and the dangers of holding onto the past. When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend Theo dies, his world explodes, while Theo had moved onto another boy named Jackson. Griffin always believed he would come back to him. Now his idea of what his future will look like is in tatters. The only person who understands him is Jackson.
Griffin is slowly turning inward though, focused on his obsessions and compulsions. Despite Jackson’s help Griffin is continuing his downward spiral. To improve his life Griffin must confront his history. He must work and put the pieces of his life back together if he wants to have a bright future.
Amazon: History is All You Left Me
5) Made You Up
In this young adult book, Alex fights a daily battle to figure out what is real and what is not. To help her, she has a no nonsense attitude, a magical 8 ball and an ally in the form of her little sister. She goes to battle against her schizophrenia, trying to stay sane long enough to get into college. She feels like she doesn’t have a problem and will be make her way to college just fine. Until she meets Miles and start going through usual milestones for her age. Alex starts making friends going to parties and falling in love.
But is she in her right mind? She prepared for difficulty but she isn’t ready for normal. Can she trust herself?
Amazon: Made You Up
I hope everyone takes a look at these pieces or considers reading more about mental health. Keep an eye on my blog as I’ll post more on this topic.
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