Runyon, Brent. The burn journals.

RUNYON, Brent. The burn journals. Random House. 325p. c2004. 1-4000-9642-1. $12.95. JSA 

Not for the faint of heart, The Burn Journals chronicle the life of 14-year-old Brent Runyon from the day he stood in the shower, poured gasoline over his bathrobe and set himself on fire. Now in his late 20s, Runyon wrote this book as therapy to set down what he remembered of the year it took for him to recover enough to return to school. He writes of what he saw as his failure in school, his failure within his family, and his determination to kill himself. As soon as the flames encircled him, however, he turned on the shower to douse them and cried for help. The Journals tell of his painful hospitalization, his gradual recovery and realization of the harm he had done himself, and his constant apologies to his distraught parents for his actions--which they insisted on calling his "accident." Gradually he became more mobile, better able to interact with his family, friends and the hospital staff, although never with the string of psychologists and psychiatrists who tried to get him to analyze his self-destructive motives. At the end of a year, Brent was ready to return to his high school, and the reader holds his breath. Patricia Moore, Chestnut Hill, MA

J--Recommend for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommend for senior high school students.

A--Recommend for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.