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A review by saram618
January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield
4.0
This is a difficult book to review. It seems wrong to say that I enjoyed this memoir about a young child struggling with mental illness. Maybe a better word would be that I was fascinated by this book (in the same way that you stare at an accident as you pass by on the road - you know it will be horrible to see, but you can't help but want to know what happened).
I noticed that several other readers were turned off by the parenting choices in this book. My feeling is that no one can judge how a parent (or any person) acts in a situation like this! Based solely on the journey of dealing with Janni, struggling to understand her and to do what's best for her, and the effects it has on the entire family I thought this book was excellent. From chapter 1 I was hooked and couldn't put it down until I found out how this family dealt with such an ordeal (needless to say, I also now want to find out about Janni as she goes through life). I cannot imagine the hell that both of these parents went through to try and do what was right for their daughter and themselves. I think the father was brave to put this story out there to the public and hope that it can help other families cope with similar situations as well as help the rest of us better understand mental illness.
I noticed that several other readers were turned off by the parenting choices in this book. My feeling is that no one can judge how a parent (or any person) acts in a situation like this! Based solely on the journey of dealing with Janni, struggling to understand her and to do what's best for her, and the effects it has on the entire family I thought this book was excellent. From chapter 1 I was hooked and couldn't put it down until I found out how this family dealt with such an ordeal (needless to say, I also now want to find out about Janni as she goes through life). I cannot imagine the hell that both of these parents went through to try and do what was right for their daughter and themselves. I think the father was brave to put this story out there to the public and hope that it can help other families cope with similar situations as well as help the rest of us better understand mental illness.