One day, I saw a book and could not help but judge its cover. It was light green with a head on it made up of puzzle pieces. As I opened the book and flipped through 444 pages of big font, I noticed that each chapter had one of the puzzle pieces for the head. I assumed that each piece would reveal part of the meaning behind the novel.

The book is It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, a novel about teen depression, which has a strong presence in today’s society. One in eight teenagers suffers from depression, and only 30 percent will receive help for this condition.

“I’d been dealing with clinical depression for a year and a half. I wasn’t eating, sleeping or having an easy time of controlling suicidal thoughts. I didn’t see many choices and I didn’t see a way out,” Vizzini writes.

Vizzini spent five days in an adult psychiatric wing in a hospital. Seven days after his discharge, he began writing this novel about his experiences.

Main character Craig Gilner is a seemingly normal teenage guy. He attends an academically competitive high school. He has a mom, a dad and a little sister. He has friends who pressure him into drinking and drugs. One day Gilner decides to maybe kill himself, thinking suicide is the only way out of the struggles in his life. Instead, he telephones a suicide hotline. He is instructed to visit a hospital.

Gilner checks himself into a hospital near his house with “Suicidal Ideation.” Once voluntarily in the hospital, he agrees to stay until he has the help that he needs. He meets people he learns to look up to. He makes friends and receives the help he needs to stay alive.

The funny parts of this whole story might come with the patients gambling with buttons, a crazy Egyptian man dancing through the halls at the end of the novel or Gilner finding joy in drawing maps that resemble human beings.

The ironic part in this story of depression is that Gilner seems like a happy teen at the start of the novel. He is a good student in a good school. He has friends who are fun to hang out with. Yes, he might get into the drinking and drugs scene once in a while, but he has a good life. This lifestyle seems like the one of so many teenagerss that I know — teens who are seemingly content with their lives.

Based on a true story, Vizzini’s experience made me think a lot about my own life also. I might have issues to deal with that might bog me down, but I always push through. It is important to realize that other teenagers may not. Depression can affect anyon,e and in some cases it leads to suicide. In 2003, suicide was the third leading cause of death among people ages 15-24.

“It’s Kind of a Funny Story is for young people who are facing 18-hour days, extracurricular envy, and the surmounting pressure of growing up too soon,” Vizzini writes.

This book may not be for everyone, however. There is some mature subject matter that unfolds in a hospital bed, and there is some profanity.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is expected out this month. I recommend it as a quick summer read. It is a book geared for teenagers, but anyone can puzzle over a not-so-funny issue facing our society these days.