It's Monday! What are you reading?

I was just about to put this book on display with our other new titles...but something about the cover, then the dust jacket blurb, made me put it in my bag to bring home this weekend.

After Zero by Christina Collins is yet another middle grade book that has taught me something new--this time, on the subject of selective mutism caused by anxiety.  In this work of fiction drawn from the author's own experience, we are privy to Elise's struggle in her own words.  Elise has been homeschooled until junior high, but finally convinces her mother to enroll her in public school.  She knows from visiting her friend next door that her home life is different, and those differences are magnified in school.  After some verbal faux pas, Elise decides it's just easier to speak as little as possible, and soon this silence becomes so woven into her identity that she feels trapped within this bubble she's created.

Collins has written a story that is more than just a platform for understanding selective mutism.  Elise eventually discovers why her mother doesn't act quite like other parents.  While the traumatic event isn't the direct cause of Elise's mutism, it left me wondering how it affected mother-baby bonding (maybe because I just watched a TV show on just that subject).  Did the effects set the stage for Elise's anxiety later on?  That's a question the author leaves hanging in the air for us...and for her characters to work out in the therapy they finally pursue.

It's Monday, and I learned a bit more about selective mutism and anxiety.  Have you learned something from a fictional character lately?  Did it give you a different perspective on mental health and healing?