The 11th Hour

March 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-High schooler Annika loves Dylan. He is the best thing that has ever happened to her, so she can't understand why her parents have forbidden her to see him or why her best friend doesn't trust him. She loves him so much, in fact, that she is willing to quit some of her favorite activities like cheerleading and dance. She loves him so much that she runs away with him to start their life together at a remote cabin in the woods. It doesn't take long for Annika to see what others may have already seen in Dylan. When his behavior becomes disturbing, Annika knows she needs help, but is it too late? This is a quick-paced pick that could easily be read in one sitting. The author portrays Dylan as a teenager who is in despair and needs help. Readers will hang on to page after page in this drama-filled narrative to see what happens next. The experience will be like trying to turn away from a car wreck-they may not want to look but they won't be able to help it. VERDICT A good addition to any high school library.-Betsy Davison, Cortland Jr. Sr. High School, NY

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
Grades 8-11 Annika and her boyfriend, Dylan, are deeply in love, so when Annika's family and friends become increasingly disapproving and seem destined to pull them apart, they make the decision to run away together. They have it all planned out perfectly: leave before anyone wakes up and drive far away to live in his family's secluded mountain cabin until it all blows over. But when their car breaks down on the way, Dylan's anger mounts, troubling lies surface, and tension boils. Told in dual narrative in real time from both teenagers' perspectives, this book is an honest and unflinching look at what it might be like to date someone suffering from untreated mental illness. The relationship portrayed is passionate and earnest, the decisions that the characters make set the stakes very high, and the ending is both tragic and startling. Scarrow opens her author's note with the hope that this book might help start a conversation about mental illness, and she has succeeded admirably and sympathetically at that goal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)