Come along and join Elizabeth, a young lady who resolved to conquer the demons in her world and in her mind. I can't promise WHAT you feel when you close the book, but I can promise that you WILL feel. Kudos to Joyce Barrett on a ground-shaking first novel. We're waiting for the next. . .

Elizabeth goes into a mental hospital to find herself and lose the painful hold of her mother and dead sister. The reader gets to experience Elizabeth's time at the hospital and her therapy. You also get a glipse at the kind of people that spend time in that kind of hospital. They are not all "crazy." I felt the book moved quickly, and I enjoyed Elizabeth immensely.

Elizabeth is a woman who is held in her mothers craziness and doesnt know who she is until she goes to a mental hospital with the help of a doctor and her aunt she does find herself and becomes free of her mothers burden

Wille's Not The Hugging Kind is a book that can teach a child about not listen to what other people think about what you do. This book was published 1989 and Written By Joyce Durham Barrett and Illustrated By Pat Cummings.
In this book one of Wille's best friends Jo-Jo thinks hugging is Silly and when he sees Wille hugging his dad before school one day he says something to Willie. This made Willie think that it was stupid and silly to hug people so he didn't want to give hugs anymore. But when Wille stops hugging everyone he soon misses giving and getting hugs from his family. Then one morning he put his arms around his mom and notcited that he liked the feeling and didn't want to listen to what Jo-Jo had to say about hugs being silly. And then now Willie feels free to give hugs and doesn't care about what other people think.
I think this book teaches a lesson about not to listen to what other people think and say about what you are doing and if it feels good don't stop doing it just because someone thinks its silly.

My second grade students loved this story. Willie has been told by a friend that hugging, basicly, isn't the thing to do. He finds himself jealous of others (including family members) that he sees hugging, and longs for a hug himself. In the end, he does hug his mom, and let his family know he is, in fact, the hugging kind!

This is a great book to let all kids know that no matter what anyone thinks of you it's ok to hug your family members love is a important part in life and if you are afraid to have love because of what friends think it's wrong. You should always be able to have love no matter how old you are