Don't Touch

September 29, 2014
Caddie Finn has been playing a "game" with herself that involves not touching anyoneânot her mother, brother, friends, or a boy she likes. She believes that if she avoids touching others, good things will happen, like her father returning home after he abandoned their family. Caddie has enrolled at a new arts school, where the students welcome her with open arms, regarding her long protective gloves as merely a theater quirk. But theater kids can be touchy (in multiple senses), and soon Caddie is living as though her friends are an obstacle course to avoid, especially after she's cast as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet. In this absorbing debut, Wilson resists turning Caddie's story into a lesson about seeking help for mental illness, instead sensitively and vividly introducing a character whose obsessive-compulsive disorder is distinct to her personality, yet relatable. Readers will wince along with Caddie as she navigates perceived threats in her world, eventually gaining a sense of internal power and solace. An endnote details the author's struggle with OCD and offers mental health resources. Ages 14âup. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

August 15, 2014
A teen girl fights a debilitating anxiety disorder that threatens to destroy her dreams of becoming an actor. Junior Cadence "Caddie" Finn is a new student at Birmingham Arts Academy, where she reconnects with her childhood friend, Mandy Bower. Caddie can't let Mandy or any of her friends know about her phobia: Touching or being touched will cause bad things to happen. Caddie's parents have separated, and she has convinced herself that they won't divorce if she can just avoid human touch. At school, she finds herself falling for Peter, and the two are cast as Hamlet and Ophelia. At home, her younger brother Jordan channels his grief over their father's departure into anger, while their mom tries to move on with her life. Caddie remains determined to hide her condition from everyone and throws herself into preparing to play Shakespeare's suicidal heroine. Even as she realizes how irrational her fears are, she continues to allow them to control her. Caddie narrates in the present tense, immersing readers in her claustrophobic anxieties. Her story effectively highlights how anxiety disorders and the stigma of mental illness affect teens, and the author offers advice and resources for help in her author's note. An insightful look at anxiety disorders and letting go of fear. (Fiction. 14-18)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Caddie is starting over: she's earned a spot at the performing arts high school for her junior year, and reconnects with an old friend in doing so. Caddie's parents are also starting over, in new, individual lives. Caddie is pretty sure that her dad will come back, as long as she listens to the part of her brain telling her not to touch anyone. No skin contact would be difficult anywhere, but it's doubly hard when rehearsing as Ophelia to her crush's Hamlet. This novel offers a good look at Obesseive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders, though it stops short of exploring treatment and recovery. The protagonist connects with a former therapist, but her healing seems more about pulling herself up by her own bootstraps than utilizing therapeutic methods. There is an Author's Note describing the Wilson's own struggles with OCD. Pair with Aaron Karo's Lexapros And Cons (Farrar, 2012) for another look at OCD in teens.-Brandy Danner, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA

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