When someone is trying to connect to you, are you listening? Do you hear what they are saying? Are you willing to hear what they are saying, even if you don’t like what they are saying? I mean really listening……when someone is trying to reach out. It’s about the commitment of friends, who don’t give up and don’t judge each other but it’s also about listening. The book is told through the eyes of one of Lisa’s best friend, Betsy and we feel the emotions and the story unfold as the friends draw together towards a common goal. They know they can’t give up because they are her only hope but Lisa’s mental illness is getting worse and she needs professional help. They rely upon books and encyclopedias but things start to get out of control and these therapists are over their heads. This book was written in 1969, so as a reader you have to consider the circumstances and the characters do the best they can to be the therapists that Lisa needs. They become her therapists and the story takes off. Sixteen year old Lisa is calling for help but no adult is willing to help her so her friends come to her rescue. Neufeld's other books have as recently as spring 2000 been cited as among the best of last year's Young Adult titles by the New York Public Library and YASLA. Lisa, Bright and Dark was filmed for television, and aired as a Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC-TV.

'Right now, if I never get another idea, I have more story lines to work on than my lifetime probably permits.'īoth Edgar Allan and Lisa, Bright and Dark, were selected as among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times. I get ideas from everywhere: from the newspapers, from radio, from lunches and talks I have with friends. Although I do write books for adults, the ideas that stimulate me always seem to come to me in the form of a story for young readers. It, too, was a success so there was no turning back. The minute Edgar Allan was launched successfully, I sat down to write Lisa, Bright and Dark. 'And when it was, everything fell into place. I didn't know that Edgar Allan would be regarded as a children's book. 'But what I wanted to do was write a short book, full of emotion and detail and excitement, for readers of all ages.

She gave me an outline for a story she thought I could write well. 'In 1968, an editor from a small California publishing house and I had lunch. In fact, I was fired from my first job for spending more time on my own projects than on the publishing house's. 'I moved to New York and worked in a publishing house. I started writing early, and badly, sending off short stories to national magazines when I was ten or eleven.

Lisa bright and dark by john neufeld