A must read! | Get Well Soon

Very relateable!! | Get Well Soon | Julie Halpern

books:


	• Get Well Soon Julie Halpern Feiwel & Friends, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Angieville: GET WELL SOON

I came across Julie Halpern's first novel while browsing the offerings over at Feiwel & Friends. I was so grateful they were publishing Long May She Reign that I grabbed Carpe Diem and GET WELL SOON as well because if they're publishing Ellen Emerson White books they not only have superb taste, they deserve my undying loyalty. Plus, both books just looked good. GET WELL SOON tells the story of Anna Bloom, a depressed teenager whose parents commit her to a mental institution when her panic attacks get in the way of her going to school. Alone, overweight, and braless, Anna starts writing a series of letters to her best friend Tracy as a way of staying sane despite being surrounded by drug dealers, Satanists, pregnant cheerleaders, oh my!

Anna's voice is at times bitter, amused, desperate, and uncertain. But it is always matter-of-fact. And it is this quality that is most appealing. I never got the feeling she was sugar-coating the way things were or trying to put something over on her reader. She writes all of these letters describing her experience in minute detail yet she doesn't send a single one. They stay in her room with her, her roommate Sandy, and Sandy's plastic baby Morgan. They seem to be a way of processing the unimaginable thing that has happened to her. By keeping them she can continue to review and add on to the narrative so that when it is time to go home there will be a record of how she survived. In an ironic twist of fate, life in the mental hospital turns out to be more interesting and "healthy" for Anna than it was outside. She makes friends who understand her and who do not send her "Get Well Soon" cards as though she had chicken pox or mono. Despite the absurd hospital workers and a few admittedly crazy fellow patients Anna is able to be herself. Paradoxically, the confining walls give her the space she needs to figure out not only what happened to her, but what she will do with this new-found self knowledge. I laughed repeatedly while reading about Anna and Sandy, Justin and Matt O. I felt about like Anna did when the time came to leave the hospital. I wasn't ready. A little more time in the loony bin, please. The real world can wait. But Anna had to go back home and the book had to end and I'm happy I got to spend this time with her.

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A must read!

This is not the typical depressed teen in a mental hospital book. Halpern gives her main character, Anna, a unique sense of humor. The really funny moments of the book make you laugh out loud. There are also many interesting observations made by Anna about her fellow 'patients', and a romance that is sweet and daring under the circumstances. Get Well Soon is written in letter format, and you feel like you are sharing an inside joke with Anna the whole time you are reading. By the end of the book it feels like Anna was writing to you all along. If you're looking for a book that has a fresh new spin on what it's like to be a depressed teen, pick up Get Well Soon. It is easy to read and it would appeal to any age or gender.

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Very relateable!!

Anna Bloom is a teen dealing with depression. After seeing a psychiatrist that doesn't help, her parents feel their last hope is to send her to a psychiatric hospital. Dropped off, not knowing how long she's going to be there, Anna begins her stay feeling understandably nervous. Ss time goes on and she begins moving up levels for good behavior, she finds that things aren't so bad. She meets a boy named Justin who becomes not only a friend, but a crush. She shares a room with a pregnant girl named Sandy, who must carry around a baby doll to learn how to care for her coming child. She even finds friends in unlikely people. More than that though, she begins to learn that it's okay to be yourself.
Get Well Soon is a book adorned with a frown on the front cover, but it's actually hilarious! This book is told in the style of letters that Anna writers to her friend Tracy, but never actually sends while she is in the hospital. You get inside her mind and find out exactly what she thinks about everything and everyone: the people she meets, the activities she has to participate in, even the food!

This book is by far one of my new favorites. Anna is a character I feel that will be relatable to many girls around the world, and it's definitely worth a read. As I read through the book, I was almost always laughing about something or curious about something. Two very good reasons that kept me reading! Now it's your turn!

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Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern

Anna has recently been placed in a mental hospital, but she doesn't really know why. People say that she needs to be here, so she can "get well soon", but what is she getting well from? She doesn't feel any different; it's just that sometimes she has panic attacks and refuses to go to school. But as she goes through life in the hospital, she begins to finally feel as if she fits in and has good friends and perhaps even a love interest?

Told in Anna's sarcastic tone, this book is a definite must-have and is very funny. The humor in it is great, and it balances well with the serious events that take place throughout the book. Halpern writes the story through unsent letters that Anna writes to her friend Tracy because Anna is too scared of what they'll do with the letters if she tries to send them out, and that style really gives it such a personal tone. A big two thumbs up!!

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Crazy Fun!

As she sees it, Anna Bloom has been carted off to the loony bin. Why? Anna has extremely low self-esteem. She is constantly afraid people will make fun of her for how she looks or what she does. This fear makes her have panic attacks. And apparently, Anna's parents just didn't know how to deal with her, so they sent her off to a slightly crazy shrink (who thought everything was sexual in some way). When that didn't work, she was then sent to Lakeland Hospital, a mental institution. And a strange one, as Anna sees it.

The rules and hierarchy at Lakeland are confusing to Anna at first because no one explains them to her. But during her three week stay, things actually start to get better. She starts to lose weight. Her new roommate, who happens to be pregnant, becomes a great friend. And then there's the cutie Justin who just might like Anna back.

Get Well Soon was told in diary entries and letters to Anna's friend Tracy over the course of three weeks. It was a very cute book, but one that could be improved. Anna's love of music could've been more developed. Julie Halpern mentions how Anna's music always makes her feel better, but doesn't really go into depth. That's fine thought because music wasn't the focus of the novel. I really enjoyed the cast of characters; even the creepy ones were in some way lovable or at least funny to read about. Anna did grow as a person, although not that much, but then again, I don't think she had that many problems to begin with. I also highly enjoyed the romance between Anna and Justin.

All in all, Get Well Soon was one of the sweetest books I've read in a while. It left off on a bittersweet note, but one that was hopeful. If you like a lighthearted and short read, check out Get Well Soon.

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Anna Bloom is depressed?so depressed that her parents have committed her to a mental hospital with a bunch of other messed-up teens. Here she meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her.

But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn?t supposed to be about making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it?

In her fiction debut, Julie Halpern finds humor in the unlikeliest of places, and presents a character whose voice?and heart?will resonate with all of us who have ever felt just a little bit crazy.

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