The book I chose for the ISU was “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” by Ned Vizzini. The image shown is a "map" because drawing maps is one of the reasons the main character's conflict ends up being solved in the end.

The story follows a fifteen year-old boy named Craig Gilner who has severe depression because of stress from going to a school that is far too hard for him. His condition becomes so bad that he stops eating all together, and his parents send him to a therapist and he gets put on medication; it worked for a while, but then he stopped taking it and he became even more depressed than before. One night, he decided he wanted to kill himself, but at the last minute, he calls a suicide hotline and admits himself into a psychiatric hospital. Over the course of five days at that hospital, he meets many friends and people he looks up to, discovers his passion for art, and finds out that mental illness isn’t always fatal and he can live life like he always wanted to.

Proof: “I wasn’t gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common” (Vizzini 96).

This quote portrays that Craig is intelligent, but very negative, because even though he is a hard worker, he believes that he is common and unimportant.

Proof: “She’s beautiful and smart and I really like her. She could be an Anchor” (Vizzini 309).
(Craig to Dr. Minerva, talking about Noelle).

This is proof of the "love interest" aspect of Noelle, because Craig considers her an Anchor and belieces she is smart and beautiful.

Proof: “Don’t be a girl. You know if I was in the mental ward, you’d call me up and rag on me a little. It’s because we’re friends, man” (Vizzini 256)!

This is proof of the Antagonist and the Inconsiderate traits, because Aaron doesn't understand what Craig is going through and makes jokes on his expense instead.

The main conflict in the book is Person VS Self, because the biggest battle Craig faces is against himself and his depression. This inner conflict was initially created when Craig started taking a special high school program called Executive Pre-Professional, which Craig thought would get him into a good university, which would get him a good job. It was hard to get in; he studied obsessively for months in order to ace the entry exam. After a few months at the school, he realized it was way too hard for him and he couldn’t keep up with the workload that he got. He started believing he was a failure and became depressed, thus losing any will to do well in school. This conflict also connects to the main theme of the book, which will be mentioned later.

Proof: “The sheet had a bunch of questions about emotions you had felt over the past two weeks and four checkboxes for each one. For example, Feelings of hopelessness and failure. Feeling difficulty with your appetite. Feeling that you are unable to cope with daily life. For each one, you could check 1) Never, 2) Some days, 3) Nearly every day, or 4) All the time. I had run down the list, checking mostly threes and fours” (Vizzini 101).

This is an example of the Person VS Self conflict Craig had. He was never able to live normally and happily because of his depression, and he constantly felt like it was his fault.

When Craig is admitted to the psychiatric hospital for his depression, he becomes acquainted with a lot of other people who are fighting battles with themselves as well; people with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety issues, paranoia, dementia, anorexia… He realizes that he isn’t fighting his battle alone, and that other people know how he feels. Even his supposed “best friend”, Aaron (who was one of the reasons Craig became depressed), realized how he was treating Craig and tried to see why he was so toxic to his friend.
Proof: "There's people whose lives have been screwed up for a long time, and thene there are people like me, whose lives have been screwed up for... you know... shorter" (Vizzini 395).

This is proof of Craig acknowledging the people around them, and how some of them suffered more than him, but they're all in the hospital now and that's what matters.

At the end of the book, Craig realizes that life isn’t worth wasting by letting his problems beat him down. He overcomes his inner conflict and pursues his dream of doing art and drawing maps, which is something that brought him happiness as a child. The author successfully solves the Person VS Self conflict theme in the story, by letting the reader know that even though Craig still has depression, he is recovering and finding happiness in life.
Proof: “I haven’t cured anything, but something seismic is happening in me. I feel my body wrapped up and slapped on top of my spine. I feel the heart that beat early in the morning on Saturday and told me I didn’t want to die. I feel the lungs that have been doing their work quietly inside the hospital. I feel the hands that can make art and touch girls – think of all the tools you have. I feel the feet that can let me run anywhere I want, into the park and out of it and down to my bike to go all over Brooklyn and Manhattan too, once I convince my mom. I feel my stomach and liver all that mushy stuff that’s in there handling food, happy to be back in use. But most of all I feel my brain, up there taking in blood and looking out on the world and noticing humor and light and smells and dogs and every other thing in the world – everything in my life is all in my brain, really, so it would be natural that when my brain was screwed up, everything in my life would be. I feel my brain on top of my spine and I feel it shift a bit to the left. That’s it. It happens in my brain once the rest of my body has moves. I don’t know where my brain went. It got knocked off-kilter somewhere. It got caught up in some crap it couldn’t deal with. But now it’s back – connected to my spine and ready to take charge. Jeez, why was I trying to kill myself” (Vizzini 443)?

At the end of the novel, Craig realizes that his inner conflict can be solves, and rediscovers the purpose in his life.

In the novel It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Ned Vizzini develops the idea that mental illness is not a death sentence, and recovery and happiness are always possible. This is demonstrated by Craig finding purpose in his life at the end of the book, and the supporting characters seeing his triumph and attempting to be happy themselves.

Proof: "Ski. Sled. Play basketball. Jog. Run. Run. Run. Run home. Run home and enjoy. Enjoy. Take these verbs and enjoy them. They're yours, Craig. You deserve them because you chose them. You could have left them all behind but you chose to stay here" (Vizzini 444).

"So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live. Live" (Vizzini 444).

These quotes show that it is, in fact, possible to recover from mental illness and that he can finally live in happiness now.

I would recommend this book, as it is very progressive and helps stop mental health stigma. However, it deals with very heavy topics (depression, suicide, etc.), so even though the book might be a bit too sad or heavy for some, it is very insightful and humorous. The book is also extremely credible, because the author himself has spent time in a psychiatric facility for depression and accurately portrays this in the novel. The novel isn't too long, so the story doesn't drag on and become boring. All in all, it is a very good book and helps people understand what mental illness is really about.