Australian author Dee White explores the complex emotions involved in dealing with mental illness in her YA novel Letters to Leonardo. Challenging and confronting, this well-written novel offers teens an insight into the emotional turmoil linked with loving someone who is affected by bipolar disorder.
Letters to Leonardo - Summary
It is Matt’s 15th birthday and he expects his biggest problem for the day will be dealing with his father’s refusal to buy him art supplies as a gift. Instead, Matt’s world is turned upside down when he receives a birthday card from his mother, a woman he thought died in a car accident when he was five.
Hurt, angry and confused, Matt eventually confronts his father. Unable to understand why his father would want to keep him separated from his mother, Matt eventually finds her and, despite his father’s warnings, tries to bring her back into his everyday life.
Matt's efforts are complicated by his mother’s battle with bipolar disorder. Her illness leads her to behave in erratic and unpredictable ways, leaving Matt hurt and confused. As the story progresses, Matt finds his belief in himself and his sense of his own identity challenged by what he discovers about his mother and returning memories of his childhood.
Through Matt’s conversations with his parents and his best friend Troy and as he reveals his inner thoughts through his letters to da Vinci, readers are given a very personal account of the struggles Matt goes through as he comes to terms with his mother's illness. Letters to Leonardo is a very touching and thought-provoking story about the impact of mental illness on families and individuals.
Teachers’ notes and classroom activity suggestions for Letters to Leonardo are available.
Australian Author Dee White
Dee White has a long-held fascination with words and writing, deciding that she would be an author at the age of seven. She has worked as a journalist and copy-writer and has published several fiction and non-fiction titles in addition to newspaper and magazine articles.
White lives in rural Australia with her husband and two sons. Updates on her publications and other activities can be found at her blog Dee Scribe.
YA Fiction Dealing with Mental Illness
Letters to Leonardo explores the ways mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, challenges family relationships and friendships. Matt struggles to adjust how he views himself and his life after he finds out about his mother and gradually comes to realise the significance of her health problems. White writes with sensitivity about the emotional impact of mental illness for family members and her portrayal of Matt’s confusion, denial and anger is very touching and believable.
Letters to Leonardo is an easy to read novel with significant impact and depth, encouraging readers to think not only about the impact of mental health disorders, but also to examine the roles family, friendships and personal abilities play on the way people see themselves as individuals and the personal value of creativity and artistic ability.
Source:
White, Dee Letters to Leonardo Walker Books (ISBN: 978-1-921150-88-3, 246 pages)
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