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Checkers John Marsden Books

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Checkers John Marsden Books

Told in first-person flashbacks and set in the mental hospital where the nameless protagonist recovers from a nervous breakdown, this story's message is: "The higher you climb, the harder you fall." Wealth and privilege cannot save your family from scandal, our protagonist learns, especially when your father is involved in dishonest business practices a la Enron.
The only honest relationship the girl has is with her mongrel dog, Checkers. She seeks comfort in his company as the media circles like vultures around her house, looking for a way to connect the girl's father to the stock market scandal that's brewing. She would never have thought that the connection they were looking for was sleeping on the rug in front of her fire.
I really liked this novel, and would have loved it if it wasn't about the fortieth book I've read that's set in a mental hospital. Mental hospitals have become way too clichéd in young adult literature. Other than that, though, it was a terrific story.


Tags : Amazon.com: Checkers (9780440228608): John Marsden: Books,John Marsden,Checkers,Laurel Leaf,0440228603,Social Themes - Emotions & Feelings,Dogs;Fiction.,Mental illness;Fiction.,Psychiatric hospitals;Fiction.,Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Dogs,Family - Parents,Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Family Parents,Juvenile Fiction Social Themes Emotions & Feelings,Mental illness,Psychiatric hospitals,Social Issues - General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Checkers John Marsden Books Reviews

Chekers tells the story of a wealthy Australian teenage girl. Although her personality and story and well-defined, her name is never given. Told through memories and flashbacks, the story illustrates the girl's plummet from the utmost joy, like getting a puppy checkers and living in a lush home, to her arrival in the phsyc ward that she is currently living in. Told as any true aussie teen would, the story is in fact realistic and chilling. John Marsden carefully reveals that even a wealthy business family can be torn apart by corruption.
This is a captivating book. I flipped it open in a book store and being one who loves animals, I decided to try it. I was quite surprised to find a delicately woven plot with surprising characters. This book tosses you directly into the path of a hurt teenager in an assylum with a collection other patients, all with their individual problems. You follow through one girl's mind, and find her individual, touching but sad story. If you want a depressing book, pick this one. If you want a surprising book, pick this one. And, most of all, if you want to be amazed, pick this book
Checkers is one of those books you are drawn into and simply can't forget. Encompassing political corruption, dishonesty, and the eventual collapse of a family, it's simply amazing. It's not a light read, but then again, none of Marsden's work is. The nameless young woman who tells her story from a psychiatric hospital will move you- she's so real it's like you feel as though she's a friend of yours by the time you've finished the book. Although I'm no longer considered a "young adult", I adore everything John Marsden has written, but Checkers is something particularly moving. Even from the start of this novel you'll possibly be moved to tears- coming from someone who hardly cries at anything, it's hard to believe that even the character's recollection of her family life had me reaching for the tissues... Simply amazing... Incredibly true-to-life- as with many of his works, you find yourself thinking, "This could happen in reality..."
It's one of those books you need to read a few times- but you wish you were reading for the first time every time you open it.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading 'Checkers'. Knowing Marsden's work, I knew I was going to stay interested the whole time, but never did I guess the plot twist near the end! This book keeps you on an emotional roller coaster. You share the main characters joy when she first gets her beloved Checkers, the pain she feels in the asylum as she sees the people she's come to know as her friends be shipped to other asylums or sucumb to their various illnesses, and the horror when she finally reveals what put her in the asylum.
She is in a mental hospital, that's all you know till fairly well into the book, you don't know why or how, just that it had something to do with insider trading, and her father, and her dog. That's what it all seems to come back to, her dog Checkers. She tells the story through flashbacks. And at first its very confusing, because she seems to be mostly just telling about her dog, like that's her main priority, sometimes she'll go off into something about her family, or why she's in the hospital, and then she'll break off and say "anyway, I was telling you about Checkers" but in the end you'll get why Checkers is so important. "Checkers" has a fairly surprising, sort of freaky ending but I thought it was very well done, and it has a lot of suspense. Very good, short, sweet read.
Though the book seems to have many flaws at first, once you read in to it all, it makes sense.
The story is of a girl whose family is being corrupted by the media, especially her father. Stories in the paper start to bother the girl, and her interest shoots up.
But among this all, is her "darling dog Checkers", a most important figure in the plot development.
While telling the story, the girl is in a Psychiatric Ward. She tells of the others there, and describes the events as if she were writing in a journal.
I high suggest this book to EVERYONE.
John Marsden did an excellent job with this book, an EXCELLENT read.
There are lot of complaints I can give about this book. The plot is too narrow. There are not enough sub-plots to make it interesting, and it just seemed like it was the one story; reading about even the other patients would have been interesting. Everything in this book was sickeningly predictable. You knew exactly what was coming at the end, which didn't make it any less horrible, but did make it quite a dull read. I was glad to see a tone that was real and honest, with very powerful writing, but overall, it's just a dull book. Nothing happens. It's a flat read, and in the end, an unnecessary one. It would have served its purpose in a short story just as well.

Rating 1.5/5
Told in first-person flashbacks and set in the mental hospital where the nameless protagonist recovers from a nervous breakdown, this story's message is "The higher you climb, the harder you fall." Wealth and privilege cannot save your family from scandal, our protagonist learns, especially when your father is involved in dishonest business practices a la Enron.
The only honest relationship the girl has is with her mongrel dog, Checkers. She seeks comfort in his company as the media circles like vultures around her house, looking for a way to connect the girl's father to the stock market scandal that's brewing. She would never have thought that the connection they were looking for was sleeping on the rug in front of her fire.
I really liked this novel, and would have loved it if it wasn't about the fortieth book I've read that's set in a mental hospital. Mental hospitals have become way too clichéd in young adult literature. Other than that, though, it was a terrific story.