The Burn Journals

Author: Brent Runyon

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Suicide

Year of Publication: 2004

Publisher & Location: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Hardcover) ; Vintage (Paperback)

ISBN#:

• ISBN-10: 1400096421
• ISBN-13: 978-1400096428

Target Age Level: 14-18

# of Pages: 384

Quality of Illustrations: N/A

Brief Summary: On the sixteenth page of this incisive memoir, eighth-grader Brent Runyon drenches his bathrobe with gasoline and ("Should I do it? Yes.") sets himself on fire. The burns cover 85 percent of his body and require six months of painful skin grafts and equally invasive mental-health rehabilitation. From the beginning, readers are immersed in the mind of 14-year-old Brent as he struggles to heal body and mind, his experiences given devastating immediacy in a first-person, present-tense voice that judders from uncensored teenage attitude and poignant anxiety (he worries about getting hard-ons during physical therapy) to little-boy sweetness. And throughout is anguish over his suicide attempt and its impact on his family: "I have this guilt feeling all over me, like oil on one of those birds in Alaska." Runyon has, perhaps, written the defining book of a new genre, one that gazes as unflinchingly at boys on the emotional edge as Zibby O'Neal's The Language of Goldfish (1980) and Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999) do at girls. Some excruciatingly painful moments notwithstanding, this can and should be read by young adults, as much for its literary merit as for its authentic perspective on what it means to attempt suicide, and, despite the resulting scars, be unable to remember why.

Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: This book is not appropriate for use with all clients. The book can be a little graphic, as it runs through the thoughts of a 14 year old boy. The book is very honest, and is written in small vignettes which can be used independently. The majority of the book deals with the psychological and physical recovery of the kid and ends with his return to regular high school.