How to Be a Real Person (in Just One Day)

by Sally Warner

Book Overview

Kara, a young girl of 11 years old, is confronting the terrible responsibility of taking care of her mother who has a mental illness. She will lie to keep her secret. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037580434X
• ISBN13: 9780375804342
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 123 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

A Parent's Bipolar Disease

For as long as she could remember, Kara's mother has had extreme mood swings. Sometimes that has meant really happy times, like when she threw a spectacular Easter party for all of the neighborhood kids. Sometimes, though, Kara's mother has been so down that she has just wanted to sleep all of the time. Kara knows there is something very wrong that makes her family different from everyone else, and so she works really hard to watch others and mimic what they do so no one else will find out what's going on. This year, though, it is getting harder for Kara to keep things together. Her father has moved a couple of hours away and he wants Kara to go live with him, but she is worried about what would happen to her mother if she left. So she lies to her father, telling him that everything is fine. In reality, everything is not fine. Kara's mother barely ever gets out of bed, and everything from artificial colors in foods to foreigners in the country seems to set her off. The pills she is taking don't seem to help her stay under control. Kara has her hands full trying to take care of her mother while making sure that no one--especially her friends or her teachers at school--realizes what is really going on. I thought this book was a realistic and very scary account of what bipolar disease would be like and how difficult it would be to live with someone who had the condition. I liked the how-to lists that Kara came up with to deal with her day-to-day life. It was interesting to see what she thought of as normal behavior. I found it hard to believe, though, that a sixth-grader could keep it together as well as Kara did and could fool everyone into believing everything was okay. I thought Kara's teacher or her father should have seen warning signals long before they did.

How to be a Real Person

Have you ever thought that you weren't a real person? Have you ever felt that you don't fit in? Well, this is how Kara feels. This story is about a girl who wants to be a real person. Kara Biggs [which is the girl's name] and Stephanie Miller are very good friends and they go to school toegether. Kara's mom is sick and stays in bed all day. Do you think Kara gots what it takes to become a real person in just one day? You'll find out. This book was interesting because of all the awesome tips the book gives you. A part that made me laugh was when Kara said she was not circus lady fat. I would reccomend this book mostly to people who have problems at home. Also to people who want to fit in and want to become a real person.

The Review on How to be a Real Person [in just one day].

How To Be A Real Person [in just one day] Sally Warner Scholastic ISBN 0-439-37542-8 Have you ever felt unreal? Well in this book Kara the main character feels this way since her parents started having problems and her moms been sick. Kara Biggs has to put up with her sick mother because her dad moved away.Since she read a book about a girl traped in a deserted island, now everytime Kara gets lonely she just gets to her lonely island by a blink of an eye.Now Kara has been asked to come over to her friend's house,but she cant leave her mother alone,so she sneaks out ofher house, but when her dad surprisingly visits her house while she's not there, everything gets even worst then before. Some qualities of this book are that each chapter begins by going back to what happened before that bad Christmas, then Kara has a list of how to be real, depending on the situation, then it goes back to what is happening in the story. I stongly recommend this book to people who don't think they fit in or have problems at home they think they can fix and keep anyone from finding out.

Awsome!

Kara was an ordinary girl, that is when she was 10. Things have changed since then. Her fathers moved, her moms "crazy". She dreams about an island that she could live on.

Felt like I knew what it was like

My parents are not mentally ill, but after reading this book, I felt like I knew what it was like. Sally Warner writes a riviting story about a teen girl trying to keep it all together; trying to take care of her mother; and trying to keep it all her own business.I think this book would also be great for parents suffering through paranoia and depression to see what their kids really go through.