Sure Signs Of Crazy

Sure Signs Of Crazy

Juvenile fiction
"You've never met anyone like me. Unless, of course, you've met
someone who survived her mother trying to drown her and now lives with
her alcoholic father. If there are other people like to meet this, I
want to meet them pronto..."
Narrator Sarah Nelson starts Karen Harrington's Sure Signs Of
Crazy with this poignant plea. The defining event of her young life
happened when she was only two. Her mother drowned her twin, Simon,
and almost succeeded in murdering her also. Unfortunately the trials
of her parents (her dad for failing to protect his babies) have become
well known to the legal community and the sensation seeking public.
Sarah and her father have to move frequently, always dreading the
moment someone will connect them with the infamous Jane Nelson and
they'll have to uproot themselves again.
Sarah also has to cope with the moods of an extremely volatile
alcoholic father. There are subjects that must must never be brought
up--including her dead brother and hospitalized mother. There are
trouble words she must be careful not to use. She even keeps two
diaries: a hidden one in which she writes her real thoughts and a
fake decoy journal in which she enters what she thinks would make
anyone potentially reading it think she's normal.
One of the subjects she can't bring up is her concern that, with
a psychologically challenged mother and an alcoholic father, she may
be anything but normal.
The tenth anniversary of her mother's crime is arriving with
journalists more than eager to present an update to the public. When
she returns to school she must make a traditional family tree about
her anything but traditional family.
How can a vulnerable young woman take charge of her life under
circumstances that would be daunting for many adults? Read the book
and see. You'll be glad you did.
On a personal note, when my Amber was almost the same age, Penobscot
County was inundated with the story of an extremely psychologically
challenged woman who started her 5-year-old daughter to death.
Because that mom was clearly unable to comprehend what she had done,
she was hospitalized rather than sent to jail. Over a period of 20
years she engaged in an ardurous recovery and regaining of
privileges. I was very angry when it was all written up on that
anniversary. It very much was not news. Who exactly was served by
doing this to a woman who has to now live with one of the most
terrible realities possible? That's what I'd like to know.
A great big shout out goes out to all journalists who can tell the
difference between news and ratings boosting.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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