DON’T CALL ME CRAZY: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health edited by Kelly Jensen. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2018. 225p. ISBN 978-161620781-6 pbk.$16.95   Gr. 8-12   NF 616.89

The editor has compiled an interesting anthology of personal essays from people who experience mental health issues every day of their lives.  The book is divided into five chapters that begin with a definition of “What’s Crazy?” and then works through “Where Crazy Meets Culture,” “The Mind-Body Connection,” and “Beyond Stress and Sadness” before reaching equilibrium with “To Be Okay.”  Adam Silvera and Shawn David Hutchinson, both authors of young adult fiction, suffer from forms of depression and incorporate some of those feelings and experiences into their own writing. Gemma Correll, cartoonist, incorporates a graphic of her “Train of Overthinking,” that loops through a town of emotions, into her story.  The dynamic Resources section includes books, films, and websites for further exploration.  Jensen wants readers to start talking and understanding the myriad ways mental health affects the lives of our family, friends, and ourselves; and then “Keep the conversation going.”

Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI