Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes?

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David Almond introduces his new picture book, A Way to the Stars, a story about perseverance and finding a way to make dreams come true.

Honestly, it took me a while before I was able to really invest in the story, but once I arrived at that point, I really could not put the book down! In fact, despite having a 10 A.M. class the following day, I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning because I was that determined to finish this book. Bourne is a former news journalist, and was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year in 2010 [18] while working as a news reporter at the Surrey Mirror. [4] She graduated from the University of Sheffield [19] with a first-class degree in Journalism. [20] Bibliography [ edit ] Standalone novels [ edit ]

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This book did not touch me at all. I think it's mainly because I couldn't stand the main character. I feel really conflicted about that, because her being a bitch is part of her mental illness, and the entire point of the book is that she can't help that she was born this way. But Olive (the main character) is just annoying me so much. Not really in being mean, because I think that's very understandable and relatable. What annoyed me is that she went to a camp to learn how to deal with her mental illness, and then she concludes that the professionals don't know how to help her so she decides to do her own thing. Hun, if you were able to help yourself, you wouldn't be in the situation you're in. If you are a reader who is unfamiliar about mental illness, you’d probably read this book and react like ‘this is intense and all over the place, what is this?’ and my honest answer to that is, it’s reality. This is such a realistic and honest representation of bipolar, I’m actually struggling to express how brilliantly realistic this book is. Having loved The Spinster Club Trilogy, and how well she dealt with Evie's OCD in Am I Normal Yet?, when I heard Holly Bourne was writing another novel dealing with mental illness, Are We All Lemmings & Snowflakes?, I was dying to read it. And oh my god, this book is absolutely incredible.

As a mental health nurse in training, I have to say that I am so impressed with the way Holly has managed to portray Olive’s illness in this book. I managed to recognise her illness only a few chapters in as the book doesn’t actually specify Olive’s illness until quite far into the book as she doesn’t actually want to know what her diagnosis is. I thought this was such a great little addition to the book as there are people living with a mental illness who don’t necessarily want to put a label on their behaviour and it actually really interested me that Holly chose to take this approach. The first half of the book is great and I enjoyed the characters, their dialogue, and the usual Holly Bourne humor and sarcasm. I even kept pausing to take note of quotable passages. But as soon as the characters (led by Olive, our main character) came up with their pseudo-superhero group which they call "Prime Numbers" to spread the "kindness" virus, it kind of went downhill from there. It was like the author was planning to write one thing and then ended up writing something else. I felt like it wasn't the direction she was shooting for but decided just to go through with it. Olive goes with the hope of getting fixed, but what she gets is much more than she bargained for. It’s not just the noise, the other kids, the secret side projects, the American counsellors and the strange amount of alpacas that she has to deal with, it’s everything she thinks she is, colliding with the possibility that she doesn’t have to be this way. But collisions can have colossal consequences, and Olive may not be ready for what’s coming. Following Olive's first manic episode, she is offered a place at Camp Reset, a new residential facility, 'the country's first teen residential camp for brain wellness.' From there we explore friendships and importantly, kindness. Convinced that kindness is the key, it becomes the focus for Olive as she tries to reset. Spread the kindness virus with your own Prime Numbers group inspired by Holly Bourne’s latest release, Are We All Lemmings & Snowflakes?a b Sheffield, University of (21 August 2014). "Holly Bourne: journalist, novelist, Sheffield graduate - Latest news - Journalism Studies - The University of Sheffield". www.sheffield.ac.uk . Retrieved 15 May 2018.