Sue MayfieldCritiques

Egy szeretett személy elvesztése egészen váratlan hatással lehet ránk, és a kétségbeeséstől a szomorúságon és önvádon át a dühig sokféle érzést kelthet bennünk. A teendők és az érzelmek zűrzavarában keressük a következő lépéseket a túlélésben. A gyásszal kapcsolatban azonban helyesebb újratervezésről beszélni, mint arról, hogy miként legyünk túl rajta. A gyász egy folyamat, életünk újrarendezése az elveszett személy nélkül. Ez a könyv segít, hogy megértsük önmagunkat (vagy gyászoló szerettünket), és megtegyük az első lépéseket afelé, hogy testi-lelki egészségünket megőrizve feldolgozzuk a veszteség okozta traumát.
Sue Mayfield művészetterápiával foglalkozik. Angliai kórházakban, iskolákban és hospice-intézményekben segíti a veszteséget elszenvedőket élettörténetük megfogalmazásában és érzéseik kifejezésében. Hazájában a fiatalok konfliktusait feldolgozó ifjúsági regényei is népszerűek.

A book about a boy who has lots of things to worry about including the terminal illness of his Mum.

This book should be read by all teenagers as it gives a powerful insight into school bullying. I liked how the author allowed the reader to understand the thinking of the victim, the bully and the bystander. The only thing that let the book down was the ending, but other than that a great read.

Sue Mayfield is certainly not afraid to tackle the big issues in a teenager's life and this book deals with a fatal accident involving four teenagers on the way home from a party one snowy night. The story is told by various narrators, each with their own distinctive voice describing how the crash has effected them, and includes friends, parents, siblings and Becci, one of the girls in the car. There are feelings of guilt and responsibility and the book describes how they are coping with their lives twelve months later. This is certainly not an easy read - especially the parts that follow the car's final journey, but it is a compelling one which should be read by young drivers going for their license.

Although not as deep and meaningful as some of her other books, this is still another great story by Sue Mayfield. I really do like this author.

The Banana Series from Crabtree Publishing allows beginning readers to progress through four sets of books. Shoot! typifies the Blue Bananas set with lively illustrations and an upbeat plot. The story is told with a mix of rhyming and non-rhyming text which will appeal to many children.

This is the story of Tony's life as his mother enters the final stages of life before she dies of pneumonia, a result of her multiple sclerosis. It also tells of Tony's relationship with Clare, and his rescuing of an injured seagull. Tony's emotions are honestly described, including his anger at his mother for not being like other mothers. He is also angry at those people who expect him to tell them how he feels, or who expect to be reassured that his mother is fine, when it's not the case. The story ends on the morning of his mother's death. The title comes from Tony mother's favourite Bible verse, Isaiah 40:29-31:

He gives vigour to the weary, new strength to the exhausted.

Young men may grow weary and faint, even in their prime they may stumble and fall;

but those who look to the Lord will win new strength, they will grow wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will march on and never grow faint.

By the author of Blue. When Isabel is dumped by her boyfriend Jamie, her sister puts a note in a bottle asking for a “decent guy” to contact her and throws it into the sea while they are on holiday in Scotland. Whe she resumes school, she auditions for the play “The Tempest” and discovers that she will be playing the female lead to her ex! Isabel forgets about the message until she receives a letter in the mail from a “decent guy” living on a remote Scottish Isle. Who will she choose?

A really disturbing view of the effects of bullying. Anna is bright, talented and new at school. She is befriended by Hayley. Soon Hayley turns on Anna. The story is told through the eyes of another girl, Melanie, and through the text of Anna's diary. I started to read the book and couldn't put it down until I found out what happened to Anna.

From Publishers Weekly
Opening with the attempted suicide of 15-year-old Anna Goldsmith, Mayfield's (I Carried You on Eagles' Wings) intense novel unspools at a breakneck pace. Succeeding chapters alternate between the first-person narrative of Anna's only remaining friend, Melanie, entries from Anna's diary (which Anna is clutching when her mother discovers the girl unconscious) and third-person viewpoints of Anna's mother and father at the hospital as they wait for their daughter to come out of a coma. Melanie's perspective and Anna's entries dovetail as they recount the escalating cruelty of their classmate Hayley Parkin. Hayley at first befriends smart, attractive Anna, who is new to the school, then turns against her. The author wisely leaves the cause for the rift a mystery, choosing instead to examine Hayley's subtle machinations: a trip here, an insult there, always out of sight of the teachers. Readers witness the dwindling of Anna's self-esteem (a few graphic scenes describe Anna cutting herself), the tenuous friendship forming between Anna and Melanie, and the insidious ways that Hayley buddies up to Melanie to undermine Melanie's loyalty to Anna. Structurally, the shifting viewpoints detract from the drama; Adele Griffin's recent Amandine does a more effective job of portraying the psychological claustrophobia that results from adolescent power plays. Nonetheless, Mayfield's drama will keep the pages turning. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.