Black Box

Dora has always led her younger sister, Elena, in spontaneous, unpredictable fun. But that ends when Dora is hospitalized for depression and returns as someone who lies, hides drugs, and skips school. Lynde Houck's performance perfectly gauges the reactions of Elena's parents and Elena's feelings before and after Dora's hospitalization. Elena's mother is cool, polite, and ready to whitewash the situation. Elena's father can barely contain his fury. Desperate to help her sister and grieving the loss of her former warmth and openness, Elena is buffeted between her opposing parents and tries to gain some kind of balance. Houck's narrative complements Schumacher's spare writing with nuanced emotions. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 4, 2008
Lena Lindt and her older sister, Dora, have always been close, like “right and left hands laced tight together.” They and their parents accept that Dora is the moody but fun one, “a storm on the horizon, the needle that always pointed to steady
,” a formula that works until Dora is overcome by severe depression in her junior year of high school. Schumacher's (The Book of One Hundred Truths
) characterizations are humane yet shaded: to combat the effect of Dora's illness, Mr. and Mrs. Lindt send the outwardly coping Lena to a therapist but treat Dora's eventual hospitalization like a shameful secret. Lena, meanwhile, feels an us-against-the-parents bond with her sister, who uses their intimacy to pressure Lena to keep secrets that may be endangering her recovery. The title refers to the drugs prescribed for Dora; at least one comes with a “black box” warning, meaning that the person taking it is at increased risk for suicide and needs to be watched closely—traditionally, Lena's job in the family. An expert use of metaphor, combined with sympathetic insight into the impact of depression on families, turns a painful subject into a standout novel. Ages 12–up.