Everything Is Fine.

by Ann Dee Ellis

Book Overview

When her father leaves for a job out of town, Mazzy is left at home to try to cope with her mother, who has been severely depressed since the death of Mazzy's baby sister.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316013641
• ISBN13: 9780316013642
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 11 to 15 years
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 10

Customer Reviews

Worth reading

I love reading a book that doesn't make me feel like I'm reading a book. That's how this book was for me -- real and raw and vulnerable. Another awesome book by Ellis.

Loved It!

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down! I felt an immediate connnection with the main character, Mazzy. She's a strong-willed say-it-like-it-is kind of a girl. Ellis's writing style is unique and minimal, but she grabs your heart and jerks it around from the very beginning. By the end of the book, you feel like you know these characters personally. The heavy subject matter is balanced with lots of humor. I laughed and laughed. I found this at the library and loved it so much, I immediately bought a copy of my own. One of my new favorite books!

Emotional Read

Wow! This one hits ya' in the emotions. I love the feeling that obviously went into this book because it shows through in the words that Ellis wrote. Mazzy is basically on her own. What is she supposed to do when people come to the house asking to speak to her mom? Who's taking care of her? Where is her father? What a load for a young girl to carry, but she does it, by herself, in spite of outside forces trying to help her. She is strong, or is she? I always love a first-person narrative. I feel it really lets me know the character, when it's done well, and this one is. I also liked how Ellis took a different spin with the chapters. When one ends, albeit in the middle of the page, a new one starts. I enjoyed that. The book just flowed from one chapter to another without any feeling of interruption. Many of the chapters are just a few sentences too. This book deals with very serious content: mental illness. It's prevalent, and needs to be brought up, not hidden. Teens need to know about it and I'm glad Ellis chose this to write about in Everything is Fine. The title itself lets you know a lot about the book, because as much as Mazzy makes it appear, everything is not fine. Will her family be able to recover from the tragedy that has caused all of this? This is a quick read, with only 154 pages. 5/5 stars for Everything is Fine.

great book

Very well written and engaging. I couldn't put it down, read the whole book in two sittings. Some books are like that even though they're stupid, like the Da Vinci Code. This one is very intelligent. Great job, Ann Dee!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Mazzy's family has fallen apart. A tragedy almost too horrible to imagine has broken down communication and left the remaining family members drifting in different directions. Mazzy's father left on a business trip months ago and never returned. He tries to communicate by phone, but Mazzy can't seem to form the words that need to be said, so most of the time when he calls she hangs up. Mazzy's mother is gone in a different sense. She stays in her room and in her bed, not moving or saying a word. Her body is there, but her mind has gone to a place not even Mazzy can reach. When outsiders like Norma, the neighbor, or Mazzy's best friend, Colby, ask how things are going, Mazzy's response is always the same: "Everything is fine." But nosy Mrs. Peet, the government lady, knows things are anything but fine. She threatens to intervene, but it will take more than a social worker to fix what's wrong with Mazzy's family. Ann Dee Ellis takes readers inside the mind of a young girl to tell the story of a family crisis. She uses prose only a hair away from being verse, and it is the perfect choice to illustrate Mazzy's tenuous grasp on reality and life at the moment. I found myself captivated by her desire to create a peaceful world for herself and her mother by avoiding the truth. Despite the tragic tone set right from the beginning, the character of Mazzy radiates a hope and determination that amazed me. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky"