- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (Aug 16 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0152051090
- ISBN-13: 978-0152051099
- Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 15 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #450,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Nolan leavens this haunting but hopeful story with spot-on humor and a well developed cast of characters, and she shows with moving clarity the emotional costs of mental illness, especially on teens forced to parent their own parents."--"Booklist", "starred review"
"In this distinct and effective blend of sorrow and humor, Jason, once invisible to his classmates and used to the chaos at home, suffers the effects of change when he's enrolled in a lunch-hour group therapy with other wayward teens and his father is taken away...he slowly learns, with the help of his new friends and foster parents, normalcy and how to care for himself first."--"Kirkus Reviews, starred review
""Nolan balances weighty subject matter with humor, offering an intelligent portrayal of a boy's slow release of burdens too heavy to carry alone."--"Publishers Weekly"
Product Description
Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen upon bad times—his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness. As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance as he stumbles along trying not to draw attention to his father’s deteriorating condition.
Both heartbreaking and funny, CRAZY lives up to the intense and compelling characters Han Nolan is praised for. As Jason himself teeters on the edge of insanity, Nolan uncovers the clever coping system he develops for himself and throws him a lifeline in the guise of friendship.
Both heartbreaking and funny, CRAZY lives up to the intense and compelling characters Han Nolan is praised for. As Jason himself teeters on the edge of insanity, Nolan uncovers the clever coping system he develops for himself and throws him a lifeline in the guise of friendship.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too,
By TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crazy (Hardcover)
Memories from before his mother died and before his father went crazy are the only things keeping Jason going, but his grasp on reality may be slipping. A cast of characters inhabit his mind; their voices constantly whisper commentary on his every thought and action.
Jason's life is a complicated mess. He's trying to keep up his grades, write for the advice column of the school newspaper, and keep an eye on his father. It had always been his mother's responsibility to keep track of his father's erratic behavior, but she's gone. Now, Jason is in charge of damage control when his father dons his Greek war helmet as he rants and raves against the Furies who he believes killed his wife and are out to destroy him. The stress of juggling both his own life and his father's has Jason talking to the voices in his own mind. Giving him advice, criticism, and sometimes comfort are characters named Crazy Glue, Fat Bald Guy with a Mustache, Aunt Bee, Sexy Lady, and Laugh Track. They are his only "friends" - until he joins a therapy group at school and finds he does have other people who are there to provide support and encouragement. It is not easy for Jason to open up to strangers, but when his fellow group members pitch in to help when it is revealed that his father has stolen a multi-million dollar violin, Jason learns the true value of friendship. When things get so bad that his only recourse is to admit his father needs medical help, his new friends continue to cheer him on. CRAZY is the story of a young teen's struggle to keep together what's left of his family. Author Han Nolan uses the unique voices in Jason's head to vividly portray the emotional torment he experiences as he watches his own father crumbling before him. Readers will come to know and love Jason and admire his courage and determination to hold it all together under unbearable circumstances. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crazy Beautiful,
By Reading Angel "Reading Angel" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Crazy (Hardcover)
Crazy is just what the titles leads you to believe it will be, absolutely crazy! Jason's mother dies, and he is left to care for his mentally ill father all on this own. He's keeping it to himself because he refuses to let his father be locked up. To keep it a secret, Jason's learned not to have any friends, so to keep himself company, he's invited an amusing cast of characters in his own head. There is "Fat Bald Guy With Mustache" who is funny and series, "Aunt Bea" (from Andy Griffith) who is the sweet grandmotherly type of influence, "Sexy Lady" who spends most of the book reassuring Jason how hot he is, and Crazy Glue who is the teenager who tends to push Jason to do things he doesn't want to.
This book was a lot of fun, and although it had the heavy topic of a father with a mental disorder, and a teen who ends up in foster care, it still moved along at a quick pace and never really felt to heavy or emotionally draining. The words really flowed through this story and I would find myself sitting down to read for just a few minutes and having to make myself put it down after a full hour has past. Jason is a great lead character, strong, independent, and yet still has to learn that sometimes you can't take care of everything all on your own. The "group" of real kids that Jason meets in therapy were a great cast and so much fun. They were a ragtag crew that I would have liked to hang out with when I was in school. It was very easy to relate with one or all of the characters in this book. Even if you didn't/don't have to deal with the same issues they do, the point is, we all have something going on in our lives that we sometimes need help getting through. Overall, this was a fast and very enjoyable read and I will be looking for more books by Han Nolan in the future. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Greek Chorus Is Crazy,
By Ken C. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Crazy (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Seasoned YA writer Han Nolan is back with a book tackling a tough topic (mental illness) with sensitivity and humor. Humor, you ask? The conceit she has happily stumbled upon takes a page out of drama-writing school as she gives "voice" to five characters the young protagonist, 15-year-old Jason, hears in his head. As the real-time action and dialogue unfold, these voices inject their own opinions like a modern Greek chorus, and Nolan uses their names followed by the colon, just as in a play script.
Jason lost his mother to a stroke and now is contending with a father who suffers from a swiftly-deteriorating mental illness. In a house with little food, heat, or cleanliness, the situation becomes dire and the "voices" become shrill. Jason, who invented the voices "for company" in 5th grade, knows them as Fat Bald Guy (FBG), Sexy Lady, Aunt Bee, Crazy Glue, and Laugh Track. Each has its own personality, by turns sarcastic, critical, supportive, nurturing, mocking, irrelevant, and funny. They help him get by as crisis follows crisis, and at times amuse the reader as well. The narrative arc of the book follows attempts by Jason's high school friends -- Shelby, Pete, Haze, and school psychologist Dr. Gomez -- to help both Jason and his dad. Also in the mix are foster families, courts, and hospitals. But the real attraction is not so much the plot as the characterization. And, of course, the essential question: just who is crazy here and who gets to define what it looks like? Overall, this is a creative and compelling outing for Nolan which will appeal to readers interested in psychology, social workers, and teens under duress.
4.0 out of 5 stars
How crazy is he?,
By J. Grambo "Teacher" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Crazy (Hardcover)
When Jason was a 6-year-old, his father tried to bury him alive. Now that he is a teenager, he finds himself the sole caretaker of his mentally ill father -- giving him his pills, trying to get him to eat, and preventing him from wandering outside with his Spartan helmet and aluminum foil earmuffs. After Jason's mother died, there was no more money coming in, so Jason gets one meal a day with his free lunch at school, and saves a portion of his food to take home to feed his father. He knows that his father needs help, but there is no insurance to pay for it, and if both his parents are unable to be with him, Jason knows he would end up in a foster home. So he stays on with his dad, in a cold house, trying desperately to hold his tiny family together.Part of what makes this book fascinating is that the main character is so conflicted. Jason wants/doesn't want friends. He loves his dad, but is sometimes scared of his dad. He wants his dad to have help, but he doesn't want to be a kid without a parent. He wants to be invisible, so that no one notices him and his problems, yet sometimes he just wants to speak up and be noticed. His conflicted thoughts have resulted in multiple voices talking to him in his head, and these voices help us see how desperate he is for someone to understand him without judging. A fascinating book, a quick read, and yet not for the younger teens. It takes a level of maturity to follow Jason's path to resisting friends, then slowly allowing them into his life. |
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