Amity Middle School Orange Book Blog

Read reviews by an avid young adult book enthusiast.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Mature readers should really enjoy this book.  Warning- -strong language is used infrequently in this book.

Jamaica (Jam for short) Gallahue has suffered a devastating loss.  Teeve Maxwell was Jam’s first love.  The loss of him has completely derailed Jam.  Since Jam is still in mourning after a year, upon the advice of her family and her therapist, she is sent to The Wooden Box, a special type of boarding school in Vermont.

“Although no one comes right out and says it, The Wooden Box is sort of a halfway house between a hospital and a regular school.”

The transition to this special school isn't the easiest for Jam.  The other “unhinged” fellow students have their own personal traumas through which to work.

When Jam is selected with five other students for a special English class entitled “Special Topics,” Jam’s roommate DJ is crushed.  She has been at The Wooden Box for two years and has never been offered the opportunity to be in this class.

Mrs. Quenell has decided since this will be her last semester teaching, the sole author the five students in Special Topics English will explore is Sylvia Plath.  They will be studying her poetry as well as her most famous work The Bell Jar. Each student is given a very special red leather bound journal in which to write his/her thoughts.

What they don’t know initially is that the journals transport them back to the trauma with which they are suffering.  The five discover that all of them are experiencing the same effect of the journal writing.  They decide to term this out of body experience “going to Belzhar”-- thus the title of this book.


Will traveling to Belzhar help each of them cope or will it induce more trauma into their already troubled lives? Read this title to find out!

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