“Turning Hour Project” blends literacy instruction with suicide prevention for a novel curriculum to teach any reader about choices and consequences. 

The Turning Hour Project, using the novel The Turning Hour in a two-week study applying state standards, was tested in a district-wide program in 2001, reaching approximately 1,000 students.  A Ph.D. dissertation was written on the results, finding that those students who participated in The Turning Hour Project were more likely to seek help when in need with suicidal tendencies than those who had not participated in the project.  The novel has audio CDs available for challenged readers and a video with the author discussing the background for the novel as an introduction to the project. email shelleyfm@aol.com or wagnerma@cox.net, for more information.

Synopsis
In this timely tale, told from two points of view (mother and daughter) we learn what was missing from Bergin's life and why she couldn't find it. And we learn why her family--the very people who should have known--did not realize something was wrong.

Just as teen suicide--a national crisis on the rise--can affect anyone's neighborhood, this story is peopled with characters who could live in anyone's neighborhood: a mother whose family's achievements set a daunting example, a daughter caught in a double bind, a father and a stepfather struggling to understand themselves and the women they love, an unconventional psychiatrist with a secret of her own, and a pet pig who lives behind an azalea bush. The Turning Hour will make you laugh and make you cry, but most important it will make you realize This could happen to someone I love....