January First by Michael Schofield
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: August 2012
Categories: Mental Health, Personal Memoir

Description:
Michael Schofield’s daughter January is at the mercy of her imaginary friends, except they aren’t the imaginary friends that most young children have; they are hallucinations. And January is caught in the conflict between our world and their world, a place she calls Calalini.  Some of these hallucinations, like “24 Hours,” are friendly and some, like “400 the Cat” and “Wednesday the Rat,” bite and scratch her until she does what they want.  They often tell her to scream at strangers, jump out of buildings, and attack her baby brother.  
 
At six years old, January Schofield, “Janni,” to her family, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, one of the worst mental illnesses known to man.  What’s more, schizophrenia is 20 to 30 times more severe in children than in adults and in January’s case, doctors say, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her. 

A compelling, unsparing and passionate account, January First vividly details Schofield’s commitment to bring his daughter back from the edge of insanity.  It is a father’s soul-baring memoir of the daily struggles and challenges he and his wife face as they do everything they can to help Janni while trying to keep their family together. 

My Thoughts:

1. That poor, poor girl 😦
2. Her poor little brother. Omg.
3. Why in the hell did they get a dog? 
4. Is the author’s wife really that cold and clueless?
5. Are the author and his wife still married?
6. I’d divorce him if he wrote about me like this.
7. Huh. This guy is kinda a dick.
8. Thank God none of my kids have schizophrenia because, wow. 
9. I. Can’t. Stop. Reading. This. It’s like a train wreck of crazy that I can’t look away from.
10. Whew!