GET WELL SOON

Halpern tells the story of how a stay in a psychiatric hospital helps depressed teenager Anna Bloom find a happier, more functional self. Angry and insulted that her parents would send her to such a place, she spends her first days shocked at the unit's restrictions and requirements. But once settled in, she finds friends, digs into her therapy, and discovers good things in herself and her life. Narrator Mandy Siegfried captures the strong, engaging voice of the protagonist. She sounds exactly like a complex teenage girl with problems that are over her head and deftly depicts every nuance in the heroine's transformation. T.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2010]