Calvin
by Martine Leavitt
Genre: Realistic Teen Fiction
Setting: Ontario, Lake Erie, Cleveland
Time Period: 2012
- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (Nov. 17, 2015)
- Age Range: 12 - 18 years
- Grade Level: 7 and up
- Lexile Measure: 680
Synopsis:
At age 17 Calvin begins talking to the cartoon tiger, Hobbes, a distraction that puts high school graduation and college plans in jeopardy. While Calvin knows he is too old for an imaginary friend, his life is full of connections to the popular comic strip. Born the day the final Calvin and Hobbes cartoon was published, his grandfather gave him a stuffed tiger that became his constant companion through childhood, and his best friend is named Susie.
Eventually even his intellect and determination cannot keep the interloping tiger at bay, resulting in a public breakdown and hospitalization. Real-life Calvin rejects pharmaceutical treatment for his schizophrenia, believing instead that all he needs to regain equilibrium is to convince cartoonist Bill Watterson to draw one more strip depicting a healthy, grown-up Calvin without Hobbes. Soon Calvin, Hobbes, and a real or imagined Susie are trekking across frozen Lake Erie in a hasty quest to meet with the reclusive cartoonist.
Eventually even his intellect and determination cannot keep the interloping tiger at bay, resulting in a public breakdown and hospitalization. Real-life Calvin rejects pharmaceutical treatment for his schizophrenia, believing instead that all he needs to regain equilibrium is to convince cartoonist Bill Watterson to draw one more strip depicting a healthy, grown-up Calvin without Hobbes. Soon Calvin, Hobbes, and a real or imagined Susie are trekking across frozen Lake Erie in a hasty quest to meet with the reclusive cartoonist.
Throughout the story, the reader is pulled into Calvin's uneven grasp of reality. Wondering what is imagined and what is real sets a quick pace for this witty but honest portrait of a young man grappling with mental illness on his own terms.
Appeal:
Realistic FictionAbility Diverse (Mental Illness)
Character Driven
Genre Characteristics:
Story Told from Teens' Viewpoint
Fast-Paced Plot
Addresses Issues/Emotions Important to Teens
Read Alikes:
Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman
Teenage boy struggles with schizophrenia.
Chasing Shadows - Swati Avasthi
Teen friends deal with death and mental illness.
The White Darkness - Geraldine McCaughrean
A teen's fixation on a doomed explorer becomes too real as she fights to survive her own Antarctic trek.
Very intriguing sounding book. Odd but cool concept. Great job on the annotation. Full points!
ReplyDeleteThe concept is interesting. I felt the characters were well-constructed and very realistic, but ultimately this seems like a YA book really aimed ( intentionally or unintentionally) and adults. There were a lot of Calvin and Hobbes references, but I'm not sure many teens would appreciate them.
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