Black-Eyed Suzie

May 1, 2002
Gr 6-9-Twelve-year-old Suzie has completely lost touch with reality. She is unable to eat, talk, sleep, or walk and sits in a cramped fetal position and cries. Her mother is infuriated by this "stage" she's in; her father is concerned but distant. It is only when Suzie's uncle forces the family to acknowledge that something is wrong and she is hospitalized that the child can begin to heal. The book is narrated by the inner voice of a character who can't speak because she simply "doesn't have any words," and she is the only character who is fully developed. Details of the abuse that caused Suzie's breakdown slowly emerge, but when the girl is confronted with the danger her older sister is in, she heroically responds. Once the truth is revealed, Suzie's recovery is unrealistically quick, but this is a riveting story that could well serve to help other children deal with a difficult family situation.-Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2002
Gr. 7-9. Mental illness is movingly portrayed in this first novel. Twelve-year-old Suzie has become nearly catatonic; she cannot eat, sleep, or talk, but spends her days hunched in a chair. Only in this position does she feel safe from her mother's wrath. A concerned uncle sees her in this state and gets her into a mental hospital, where, with the help of empathetic caregivers and an excellent therapist, she finds the courage to talk about her mother's physical abuse. Short, diarylike episodes immerse the reader in Suzie's worlds, both her real world of physical and verbal abuse and the seductive, cocoonlike fantasy world she embraces to escape her mother. Suzie's recovery seems a bit quick, and remarkably without any setbacks or regression; but Shaw's depiction of the intricate family dynamics that support an abusive situation is both realistic and sympathetic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)