Cut by Patricia McCormick

Cut by Patricia McCormick
Young adult realistic/life issues dealing with abuse
ISBN: 0-439-32459-9
151 pp.
Suitable for 15+

Readers Annotation: Callie cuts herself and is now at a treatment facility where she remains silent until a doctor finally breaks through with her.

Plot Summary: Callie is a teenager who cuts herself and is being treated at Sea Pines, a residential treatment facility. However, she wants nothing to do with the doctors, nurses, and her fellow peers. She remains silent and is never included. A doctor that she meets with semi-daily tries to help her out to no avail. However, the doctor says things that stick with Callie and one day she finds herself speaking. She speaks with her fellow peers and actually hangs out with them, feeling included for the first time to the point where she sees them as friends. She speaks in group too. Most importantly, she speaks to her doctor and finally says whats on her mind while also answering questions. Callie opens up about her family life where her brother is always sick, her mother always tired, and the father missing in action. However, as the doctor says, it's up to Callie to help herself and not cut.

Critical Evaluation: With such a simple story, it is also a psychological puzzle. What makes Callie tick and cut? Why won't she speak? The book does a good job of solving the mystery little by little through flashbacks and simply speaking. The reader fills in the blanks for the majority of the book. The reader is also drawn in as a character, the doctor, which gives a first glance look at mental illness. Cassie is well-developed in a minimal sense while her peers have issues tacked on to them. They represent a teen drama of sorts in the treatment center, which splits the story into two. There isn't enough craziness to get a sense that this is a loony bin; it is more about teens going through issues; a nice realistic touch. Going back and forth between these two stories make the pacing exceptionally quick and energizing as it never focuses on one scene or character too long to make it tiresome. There are numerous observations, which helps fill a detailed scene in the readers mind and also keeps them interested. The only thing is that the mystery is basically solved, which takes the fun out of the mystery but answers the questions of Callie.

Author: Patricia McCormick is an author specifically for young adults. She grew up in a regular suburban neighborhood and because of her way of thinking, felt out of place. She graduated from Columbia University School of Journalism in 1999. Cut was her first novel and she spent three years researching and writing it, to which it won rave reviews and awards.

McCormick has also written other young adult novels such as Purple Heart and Sold. She also has teaching experience at Columbia and does some work as a free-lance journalist. She currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, son, and two cats.

Booktalking Ideas:
1) Physical abuse to oneself
2) Treatment
3) Dysfunctional family
4) Psychological issues

Challenge Issues: There are some challenge issues present due to the detailed descriptions of cutting oneself, psychological trauma, and Callie's peers/friends inside the treatment facility.

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Why Included: I am on a YA realistic fiction kick at the moment and I simply came across this book while working the front circulation desk at the library I work at.