The first episode of ORANGE has arrived: READ IT!

Just got another review for the book!

How I Made It to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story Tracy White. Roaring Brook, $16.99 (144p) ISBN 978-1-59643-454-7

White’s story of a 17-year-old girl’s ordeals with depression, addiction, and body image issues is all the more powerful because of its basis in truth. The story follows Stacy Black, whose nervous breakdown leads to her decision to check into the Golden Meadows Hospital for mental health. Given the thinly veiled name of the protagonist, it’s no surprise that White is upfront about the events being drawn from her own experiences. Stacy begins with the simple goal of finding a way to be happy with her life again. What follows, though, is life-changing realizations about her drug dependency, her relationship with her mother, and her insecurities about her boyfriend. In the end, her most unexpected revelation is how serious her body image issues are, how much she’d accepted them as an ordinary part of her life, and how much damage they’ve done to her. White’s very simple hand-drawn, b&w artistic style enhances the personal touch of the work, creating the effect of an illustrated diary. While text-heavy, the narration is clear-eyed and affecting. Ages 14-up. (June)

The final episode of OWCH is here.

TRACED update coming week of the 26th.

For this week: The first official review of my book from VOYA.

“White, Tracy. How I Made It To Eighteen: A Mostly True Story. Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 2010. 137p. $16.99. 978-1-59643-454-7.
White’s “mostly true story” begins when seventeen-year-old Stacy Black enters Golden Meadows Hospital in an attempt to feel like herself again—whoever that is. Ostensibly Stacy works toward her goal of being happy again, earning privileges at the hospital and even becoming close friends with another patient. But she moves both forward and backward in her recovery, clinging to an unhealthy relationship with Eric, offering advice she cannot take, and refusing to be open and honest about her thoughts and actions.
Stacy’s story of anxiety, abuse, self-harm, addiction, and depression, is also a story of an interesting, creative young woman and her friends, a veritable chorus that adds perspective and insight into Stacy’s struggles. White’s images are as intense and telling as the written text. Comparisons to Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted (Random House, 1993) are unavoidable: both are stories of self-discovery, memoirs of the female authors’ time in mental health facilities during their late adolescence. Both Kaysen’s and White’s stories are fascinating and frustrating. Most significantly, both memoirs stop short of offering easy solutions to complicated problems. White’s perspective is honest, often unflinchingly and quite unsympathetic to her adolescent self. Still it is made clear why Stacy is likeable and loyal. More honest than Cut (Front Street, 2000/VOYA February 2001), more intriguing even than Girl, Interrupted, White’s novel uses stark black-and-white imagery to construct her frank and honest story of a fraught adolescence.—Jennifer Miskec.

Blood and hair in high school. Read it.