I think the fear of losing one's mind is a pretty common one for a teenager, but I think the more important idea that this book brought out in me was that, if I did fall apart, I would be taken care of. I looked critically at my parents across the dinner table, wondering if they would take me seriously if I told them, as Lisa tells her parents, that I needed help. I feared that I, too, might go mad and do something equally shocking. But none of the grown-ups seem to care, even as Lisa gets sicker and sicker - finally, in a scene that's the dramatic centerpiece of the book, walking through a pane of glass.

Her friends, one of whom narrates most of the book, try desperately to get the adults in their midst to take notice and help Lisa.

Lisa has her 'bright' days, when she's fun to be around, and her 'dark' days, when she does and says things that don't make sense. Lisa, Bright and Dark is about a group of kids who are all worried about their friend Lisa Shilling. Meg Wolitzer's new novel, The Interestings, will be published next spring. The thing is, when you're a teenage girl and you read about girls who fall apart, whether it's through depression, as in the Plath, or through a more nebulously defined mental illness, as in the Neufeld, you definitely start to wonder if the same thing might happen to you. Lisa, Bright and Dark was like The Bell Jar's little sister, an easier-to-read, less literary, slightly less harrowing look at mental illness, meant for younger readers. I credit this novel, which I read at age 13, to leading me, a few years later, to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, which would go on to become an essential book in my life. Lisa, Bright and Dark, John Neufeld's 1969 novel for young adults, is one of these. You know how people talk about so-called gateway drugs - drugs that lead to harder ones? I think some books can be considered gateway books, because reading them leads you to start reading other books that are similar but more intense. Meg Wolitzer is a novelist whose most recent works include The Uncoupling and a book for young readers, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Lisa, Bright and Dark Author John Neufeld

Lisa, Bright and Dark by John Neufeld