Giddy Barber Explodes in 11 - by Dina Havranek (Hardcover)

About the Book

Overburdened with responsibilities at home and struggling with school work and toxic friends, fifteen-year-old Giddy embarks on an eleven-day challenge to confront the escalating challenges within her life and her own mounting anxiety.

Book Synopsis

The hilarious and heartening story of a teen girl who makes several astonishingly terrible decisions in an effort to find the support she needs.

Giddy Barber knows with certainty she's going to become a mechanical engineer. What she doesn't know is the last time she smiled.

With her parents overworked and unavailable, it falls to Giddy to make sure her siblings stay on track. But she's exhausted. When you're the person everyone else turns to, what do you do when you hit a wall?

Giddy finds an answer online--if you can't handle how things are going, shake them up. Is it sound advice? Unclear. But is Giddy willing to try anything? Absolutely. Putting eleven days on the clock, she'll change her routine. But soon it becomes clear that some problems are bigger than what an online column can fix--her family is fracturing, her anxiety is mounting, and all she knows is this: Something. Has. To. Give.

In Dina Havranek's Giddy Barber Explodes in 11, a long-time teacher dives into the issues of depression, overwork, and lack of support many of her students are dealing with. In a results-obsessed society, how much are we demanding of teens? And what happens when their burdens become too much?

Review Quotes

"Havranek creates a realistic and relatable story, thoughtfully approaching mental health through the lens of a teenager just trying to solve it all herself. This debut will especially resonate with readers who understand the parentification of older siblings and how counting on a child to pick up a parent's slack can negatively impact a young person's mental health."--Booklist

About the Author

Dina Havranek hails from Houston, Texas where she teaches Science to the excellent students at Timberwood Middle School. A former TV news reporter and local actress, she loves being on stage and has been a speaker at the DFW writers conference where she is a regular attendee. She lives with her husband, her daughter, an out-of-control Lego collection and a pair of extremely ungrateful cats.