Werlin, Nancy.
RULES OF SURVIVAL
New York : Dial Books, 2006
IL YA
ISBN 0803730012

(4 booktalks)

I know you don't remember much about what happened when you were little.  At least I hope you don't.  But I need to write it down so we can all remember.  So if there comes a day when you want to know how we ended up here, I can tell you.  How we lived.  How we met Murdock.  How Murdock became an obsession with me.  How Callie found him.  How safe we felt.  How wrong we were.  I really don't want you to remember. To remember how afraid we were.

Booktalk #2

 "Emmy,

"You're too young now to understand what really happened, or the danger we all lived in. But someday, you might wonder. You might have questions. So I'm going to write down everything that happened, from the time I was four and first understood what my job was in our frightening and unpredictable family, until now, when I'm eighteen, and getting ready to leave you and Callie for the first time.

"It's hard to remember, Emmy, because it means that I have to live through the horror and the fear all over again. But I need to do it, not just for you, but also for me. If I can understand what happened to me, to us, and how our mother changed all our lives, if I can understand where I came from, what shaped me, maybe I can understand who I am now, and who I have a chance of becoming.

"For me, it all started when I saw Murdoch stare down an angry father twice his size who was about to start pounding on his son. I heard him tell the little boy that no one had the right to hurt him, no one, not even his father. I'd never heard anyone say that before. I was thirteen years old, and what I thought I knew was that no one could be trusted. Especially the people who said they loved you.

"I was about to learn that I was right. And that I was wrong.

Matthew" (Booktalk written by Dr. Joni Brodart)   (Rhode Island Teen Book Award nominee 2007-2008)

Booktalk #3

For those of you who liked “A Boy Called It”, it’s likely you’ll like this book.  Matthew was the big brother in a family with a very, scary, unpredictable mother.  He never knew if she’d come home loving or vicious.  What he did know was that it was up to him to protect his younger sisters.  Sometimes the task felt nearly impossible.  Although his dad was kind of around, he didn’t seem to have the emotional strength to raise the kids himself.

Then one day Matthew runs into an interesting man named Murdoch McIlvane.  He sees him stand up to father who is about to abuse his son in the store.  It is this observation of Murdoch and later a connection with him that enables Matthew to think about getting away from his mother.  Everyday, though, his mother seems crazier and crazier.  Even driving with her in the car is not safe.

The question is, will he be able to get he and his sisters out before someone gets seriously hurt?  What adult or adults could help him? (Evergreen YA Book Award, 2009)

Booktalk #4

"Emmy, 

"You're too young now to understand what really happened, or the danger we all lived in. But someday, you might wonder. You might have questions. So I'm going to write down everything that happened, from the time I was four and first understood what my job was in our frightening and unpredictable family, until now, when I'm eighteen, and getting ready to leave you and Callie for the first time. 

"It's hard to remember, Emmy, because it means that I have to live through the horror and the fear all over again. But I need to do it, not just for you, but also for me. If I can understand what happened to me, to us, and how our mother changed all our lives, if I can understand where I came from, what shaped me, maybe I can understand who I am now, and who I have a chance of becoming. 

"For me, it all started when I saw Murdoch stare down an angry father twice his size who was about to start pounding on his son. I heard him tell the little boy that no one had the right to hurt him, no one, not even his father. I'd never heard anyone say that before. I was thirteen years old, and what I thought I knew was that no one could be trusted. Especially the people who said they loved you. 

"I was about to learn that I was right. And that I was wrong. 

Matthew"

17-year-old Matt narrates his story as he writes a letter to his youngest sister, Emmy, in an effort to come to terms with the vicious treatment he and his two sisters suffered at the hands of Nikki, their beautiful and unpredictable mother.  Often intense, and unpredictable, the story is one of survival. (Mary M. Silgals, Trident Academy, for South Carolina Young Adult Book Awards, 2008-2009)