Break Paperback – August 25, 2009

Jonah has a twisted best friend named Naomi, a younger brother Jesse who's allergic to practically everything (milk can lead him to death's door), and an infant brother named Will who won't stop crying. Also, his parents are nasty to each other and should be divorced. How does he cope and make sense of things? By breaking himself. Jonah purposefully gets into accidents and keeps a tally of his broken bones. But his addiction to pain and healing gets out of control.Things became increasingly worse for Jonah, which made me flip the pages faster to see if he would drop his goal of being constantly broken or take steps to overcome what drove him to hurt himself. The characters were deep and believable. I'm impressed that the author was a teenager when she wrote this. Now I'm eager to read the Moskowitz's second book, INVINCIBLE SUMMER.

Break is a great read about Jonah, Will and Jess. Their family isn't quite perfect causing a lot of conflict throughout the story. Jonah breaks his own bones in an odd form of self harm in order to control the pain in his own way. Jess is a walking allergic reaction and Will isn't perfect himself. Together they must attempt to work through their problems and begin to understand each other in the process. I myself am a self harmed and don't have the perfect family so in a way I can relate. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do.

From the first page this book held me in thrall and I read the entire book in one sitting. The characters surged off the page and their dilemmas drew me in to a point where I felt their pain. It's hard to believe such a powerful story could be written by someone so young, yet the raw emotion that spills from the page could come from no one but a teenager. The ending felt a little forced, which is why I haven't awarded 5 stars. I think as soon as people outside those who enabled him found out the secret, things fell apart to a degree, but then, maybe that's the point because his world fell apart too.

Bought the Kindle version.It was a interesting book. A very quick readthat kept my interest. I think I've read this about 3 times.The book is about a guy named Jonah who has a complicated family life. His brother Jesse is allergic to everything and his baby brother will cries no stop.Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. To be stronger. I feel like the book was well written.It felt like you knew the characters.

3 Stars - I was drawn to this story because of the idea of a teenage boy who goes out of his way to try to break every bone in his body. I wanted to know just what was behind this idea, why someone would want to do this to themselves.The plot was interesting and kept me reading. Jonah, our main character had many problems that he didn't know how to deal with - hence breaking his bones so they grow back strong, making him stronger for his family. I felt that the ending left us a little short. I didn't like that I started to care for Johan and I never knew or got the feeling he would be okay. I would have given it more stars if I had more closure. I know sometimes not having closure in a book fits, but for me... I needed more with this one.Also, Naomi, Johan's best friend pushed my buttons. I was frustrated that she didn't listen to her best friend and support him when things changed or he was trying to change. She used such peer pressure on Jonah that it was hard to read at times. I guess I just felt that he had so much going on that he didn't need that from her piled on top of it all too. Then again, that's true, in some form with most teen's right?His family didn't know what to do about this either. That part of the book was more then realistic as so many parents face things with their kids that they don't understand, don't know what to do with. I knew that they wanted to help but felt so helpless in the situation with not only Jonah but with his other brothers, both younger - one brother Jesse who's allergic to just about everything and a baby brother Will who does nothing but cry.In the end this book wasn't what I was expecting. It was a nice change from what I tend to read. I like finding different stories and this was just that. I commend Moskowitz for writing this book and getting published while still in High School. I'll be looking for her next book to see what she has in store for us next.

Absolutely loved this book!