Module 12

Module 12:

The Burn Journals

Summary:

This young adult book is a real life memoir of Brent Runyon’s suicide attempt when he was 14 years old. The book tells the story of his rehabilitation and the impact on him and his family.

Citation:

Runyon, B. (2004). The burn journals. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Impressions:

This was a very moving book about teenage depression and suicide attempts. Runyon went through hell after setting himself on fire in his bathroom shower. Runyon goes stronger during his recovery and attempts to find the cause of his depression.

Review:

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 8-12. On the sixteenth page of this incisive memoir, eighth-grader Brent Runyon drenches his bathrobe with gasoline and ("Should I do it? Yes.") sets himself on fire. The burns cover 85 percent of his body and require six months of painful skin grafts and equally invasive mental-health rehabilitation. From the beginning, readers are immersed in the mind of 14-year-old Brent as he struggles to heal body and mind, his experiences given devastating immediacy in a first-person, present-tense voice that judders from uncensored teenage attitude and poignant anxiety (he worries about getting hard-ons during physical therapy) to little-boy sweetness. And throughout is anguish over his suicide attempt and its impact on his family: "I have this guilt feeling all over me, like oil on one of those birds in Alaska." Runyon has, perhaps, written the defining book of a new genre, one that gazes as unflinchingly at boys on the emotional edge as Zibby O'Neal's The Language of Goldfish (1980) and Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999) do at girls. Some excruciatingly painful moments notwithstanding, this can and should be read by young adults, as much for its literary merit as for its authentic perspective on what it means to attempt suicide, and, despite the resulting scars, be unable to remember why. Jennifer Mattson  (Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Burn-Journals-Brent-Runyon/dp/1400096421/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291957398&sr=1-1)

Suggestions:

This book would probably be geared toward an older audience. The entire book is centered on suicide and depression with a few sexual references. This may be a tougher read for some but I think it may help some students see that a person can overcome such serious issues such as depression and suicide.