death

Review: Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg

| Tasha

laugh with the moon

Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg

After her mother dies, Clare’s father takes her to Malawi where he had worked as a young doctor.  Clare is determined to never speak to her father again.  She has lost not just her mother, but her best friend and the potential for her first boyfriend at school.  Now she is stuck in Africa where there is little hot water, mosquito netting over the bed, and monkeys screaming outside.  As Clare starts to relax into life in Africa, she begins to make incredible friends at her new school.  Memory, a girl from the local village, quickly becomes her closest friend.  Memory too has lost her mother, though the girls don’t speak of their losses together.  Memory makes sure that Clare has things that she can eat, explains the school day to her, and even warns her of the bully in class.  As Clare faces her new school with its new language, visiting chickens, and scurrying insects, her relationship with her father starts to get better.  Clare still has big issues to face, including teaching English, putting together a play, and another large loss in her life.

Burg truly brings Malawi to life with its strong culture, the stark differences between America and Africa, and the warmth of the people.  Her writing is an invitation to explore Africa.  She celebrates both the differences in cultures and the universal aspects of life, filling the book with details that paint a full picture. 

Clare is a complex character, grieving from the loss of her mother, at first she seems remote and difficult to relate to.  Happily, she soon grows past that, becoming a vivacious personality with opinions and skills.  Her art forms a connection between her and other people who may not speak the same language, but it is her open personality that does the rest. 

The book would make a good choice for reading aloud in a classroom setting since it explores so many themes and topics.  There is plenty to discuss from death and grieving to dealing with living in another part of the world.  The glorious cover will get this moving from the shelf into young hands directly too.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Delacorte Press.

Review: The Roller Coaster Kid by Mary Ann Rodman

| Tasha

roller coaster kid

The Roller Coaster Kid by Mary Ann Rodman, illustrated by Roger Roth

Zach loves spending time in the summer with his grandparents.  They go to the beach, fly kites, find shells, and go to Oceanside Park.  The only thing Zach doesn’t like there is the rollercoaster.  He waits in line with Grandpa but then always changes his mind at the last moment.  Instead, he rides the Big Wheel with his grandmother.  Zach knows that the next time, he will be able to ride the rollercoaster.  But the next time he visits, everything is different: his grandmother is no longer there.  His grandfather is not like he used to be at all.  Zach knows one thing that is sure to cheer up his grandfather, and that’s the rollercoaster.  But will Zach be able to ride it this one, very important, time?

Rodman tells this story with clarity and gentleness.  It’s a story of the deep connection between grandparents and grandchildren and how that connection can help with grief.  It is also a story of bravery thanks to love.  Children will relate to the connection with grandparents, though the jolly cover may not warn parents that this is a story of loss. 

Roth’s illustrations have a subtle vintage quality to them, something that hearkens back to yesteryear though it is solidly set in the modern day.  The illustrations of Zach on the rollercoaster are wonderful, showing the fear, the doubt and finally the exhilaration. 

A roller coaster book that shows the roller coaster ride of life as well, this book addresses the loss of a grandparent with a shining heart.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

Review: Devine Intervention by Martha Brockenbrough

| Tasha

devine intervention

Devine Intervention by Martha Brockenbrough

When his best friend shot him in the head with an arrow, Jerome died instantly.  Now he finds himself in between Heaven and Hell, given a second chance to save himself from eternal torment.  He’s been appointed as Heidi’s guardian angel as part of soul rehabilitation.  Jerome didn’t actually read the handbook for guardian angels, so he’s mostly just winging it.  Heidi has heard Jerome’s voice in her head since she was small.  When she got older, she started to realize that others don’t hear voices like that and that she may be crazy.  So Heidi started to withdraw and kept more and more to herself.  She doesn’t always listen to Jerome’s advice, though he tries to help.  So when she and her best friend head on stage during Talentpalooza and there is a major wardrobe malfunction, Heidi has no one but herself to blame.  But that’s not why she was out on the pond’s thin ice at all.  Though her life (or death) will never be the same after falling through.

Brockenbrough strikes just the write tone in this novel.  While deep issues are dealt with, she keeps the writing light and playful.  It helps that she is a truly funny author, writing with a hilarity that makes reading the novel pure fun.  At the same time, she does fully explore the meaning of life in the book, what death may hold for us, and the importance of family, even dysfunctional ones.  Her lighter tone makes these deeper issues all the more reflective and powerful.

The two main characters are very successfully drawn.  For me, Jerome is the voice of the book.  It is his perspective on life and death that makes the book work so well.  Heidi on the other hand is vital to the book, but doesn’t have the whiz and bang of Jerome.  That said, a book only needs one star of a character.  Heidi makes a grand secondary lead character, offering a different perspective and a lot of action to the book.

This funny teen novel about death and life features juvenile delinquents as guardian angels.  I think that explains a lot about life.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Review: A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

| Tasha

greyhound of a girl

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

Four generations of a Dublin family come together in this ghost story.  Mary is a modern Dublin pre-teen who finds herself moving away from her childhood rituals but also wanting to cling to them too.  One day on her way home from school, she meets Tansey, a woman who wants her to give a message to her grandmother.  Mary forgets, distracted by visiting her grandmother in the hospital with her mother.  So it isn’t until later that she mentions the woman to her mother, who pales at being told the name, Tansey, because that was her own grandmother’s name.  Soon Mary is having her mother meet Tansey and her relationship is revealed as is her status as a ghost.  The three of them conspire to get Tansey and her daughter together again, even though Tansey can’t survive the harsh lighting of the hospital.  The result is a road trip filled with hellos, memories, family stories, and goodbyes.  Richly layered, this slim volume holds a grand tale.

Doyle plays with the format of a ghost story here, at first starting with a little shiver and danger and then turning the story into that of a family that has dealt with an early death for generations.  It is a story of maternal love and the connections of women in a maternal line.  It is also the story of loss, death and above all, life.  Doyle creates fascinating characters, particularly in the two older women, Tansey and Emer.  Their stories have a pastoral beauty, a vivid warmth, and yet are damaged by death.  It is poignant, lovely and tragic.

The story is character driven and told in a slow, transformational way.  It takes its time, filled with small moments of lives, hands wrapped around tea cups, children on laps, slow steps up stairs for the last time.  Yet it is not a slow story, it is engaging, rich and builds a mood that is inescapable and memorable.

I loved this little book and the world that it created that seemed just for me.  Doyle’s writing is confident and beautiful, meticulously crafted.  This is a ghost story but so much more as well.  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from ARC received from Amulet Books.

Review: Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker

| Tasha

summer of the gypsy moths

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker

Stella lives with her great-aunt Louise on Cape Cod, where the house is always tidy, and even though Louise is not very demonstrative, Stella feels right at home.  Angel, a foster child, lives with them too, but Stella and Angel don’t get along at all.  Then one day, the girls return home to find Louise dead in her chair.  The two girls know that if anyone finds out, they will be put back into the child welfare system.  So they work together to create a plan that will let them stay in the tidy little house near the sea.  It would take a lot of work, because they would have to cover for Louise at her job of caring for four cottages on the property, and they would have to take care of the dead body too!  It’s a challenge for two girls who never got along in the first place and are headed in different directions when the summer is done.  This hope-filled book starts with a death and strangers and ends with hope and family. 

Pennypacker writes the sort of book that Stella would like to read.  It’s filled with all of the between-times, the moments of cleaning up afterwards, the small details, the real parts of life.  And it is through those moments that we get to know both girls, and Louise too.  The two girls are very different, and yet not so different after all, as readers get to know them.  They are both suffering from disappointments and loss, from being left behind, from not having families.  Stella holds onto her Hints from Heloise, determined to have a life of order and neatness that makes sense.  Angel listens to the music her mother played, hiding behind her earbuds and blocking everything out. 

One might think this would be a macabre book, and it does have those moments.  But it is much more a book about people and life, not death.  It is a book that celebrates summer, the days that stretch and lengthen, days shortened by working hard at times.  It is a story about secrets, opening up and revealing things.  It is a story about truth and lies, enemies and friendship.  Throughout the entire book, the story works naturally.  Things happen in their own good time, friendships blossom in a believable way.

This book does have a very neat ending with all of the storylines nicely fitting together.  I can only believe that Stella would approve of that being the way her story ended.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Lark by Tracey Porter

| Tasha

lark

Lark by Tracey Porter

Sixteen-year-old Lark is kidnapped, raped and left to die in a snowy woods.  The story is told in alternating chapters by Lark and two of her friends.  There is Eve, a girl who used to be Lark’s best friend until one argument destroyed their friendship.  Finally, there is Nyetta, who struggles with being able to see and hear the ghost of Lark.  She is tasked by Lark to save her from being bound into a tree.  Nyetta is put into therapy because of this.  While the book is certainly centered around the tragedy of Lark’s murder, it is also about the two living girls and their need to be believed, cherished and understood. 

Porter’s writing is art.  She has created a book that has only 192 pages, but is a book that also requires careful reading and has depth and darkness as well.  Her writing verges on verse at times, thanks to it being spare but also filled with images.  She plays with magical realism here, speaking definitely to the real-life issues but imbuing them also with a certain symbolism that reaches beyond the actual.  This lends a real depth to the story, creating a book that is worthy of discussion and thought.

The three lead characters are differentiated well, each a solid character with her own personality and problems.  One issue that is woven into the story is sexuality and molestation with two of the girls having experienced molestation or rape.  The book teases readers with reading too much into what the girls were wearing or what they looked like, but then firmly says that that is not why girls are molested or raped.  It is well written, clear and reassuring. 

This is a short book that is a deep read.   The darkness will appeal to some teen readers and the magical realism to others.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Book Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

| Tasha

monster calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, illustrated by Jim Kay

Released September 27, 2011.

Conor awoke at 12:07, just after midnight, from his nightmare, the one he had been having for years.  Then he realized that something was calling his name.  It was a monster, but not the monster from his dreams.  It was another monster, a monster who came walking to tell him three stories and then Conor had to tell him the fourth and final story.  And it had to be the truth.  Conor had not told anyone the truth for some time, not since his mother had first gotten sick.  Now she was worse again.  So Conor turned to the monster in the hopes that he could save her, that that was what had brought the monster walking.

Ness has created a powerful book from the final idea that Siobhan Dowd left before she died.  It is gut wrenching on so many levels.  You have a monster who is breathtakingly real, a boy who is disappearing into his mother’s illness, and a story of cancer and all of the feelings and emotions it creates and doesn’t allow to be expressed.  This is a book about the time before the loss, the anguish of the waiting, the hollowness not only inside the surviving family but around them as well, and the anger that is a part of grief too. 

Ness does not duck away from anything difficult here, rather he explores it in ways I haven’t seen before.  He takes the darkness and makes it real, makes it honest, creates truth from it and lays it all bare.  It is a book that is difficult to read but too compelling to put down.

Kay’s art runs throughout the book, framing the text.  It helps create a mood for the entire work, one of darkness and lightness too.   He plays with such darkness in his art here that it is sometimes a matter of black and blacker.  The art, done just in black and white, speaks to the power of the monster, the blaze of life, and the fragility of it as well.

I simply can’t say enough good things about this book.  It is a stunning work that truly does tribute to Siobhan Dowd’s idea.  Appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from ARC received from Candlewick Press.

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Book Review: The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye by Jane Yolen

| Tasha

day tiger rose

The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jim LaMarche

A quiet, thoughtful book about the death of a pet, this is a beautiful way to explain death to a child.  Through poetry that paints pictures of Tiger Rose’s days and her life as well, the story is told in special moments and connections.  Tiger Rose is an old cat and she knows her time is drawing near.  As she heads off, she takes the time to see her people family once again, time to bid farewell to the sleeping dog, and time to visit her favorite places to nap.  At the end, she cleans herself from head to tail and stretches in the sun before curling up under the rosebushes.  Then she rises into the sky, never once looking back. 

Yolen takes time to really have this cat connect with her life, so readers can envision what she was like as a younger, more spry cat.  The time is also important as children will need it to come to terms with what is happening.  This book does not spring the cat’s death on readers, rather the book is all about the death and what leads up to it.  It is about saying goodbye to a good life.  Yolen’s writing is beautiful, aching and gentle.  She whispers in this poem, sharing sweet moments, softly.

LaMarche’s art echoes that gentle softness with his delicate lines and glowing lighting.  He celebrates Tiger Rose in her last day, allowing readers to celebrate too in her beauty and grace.  His style is perfectly married to the subject here.

While this is another picture book on the already crowded death of a pet shelf, it takes a different approach to the subject and really honors what is happening in a beautiful and touching way.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House.

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Book Review: All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen

| Tasha

All_My_Friends_Are_Dead

All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen and Jory John

What looks like a small, chunky picture book is actually not a book for children at all.  Instead it is a very funny book for teens and adults that is filled with black humor yet an appealing cuteness as well.  From the tree whose friends are all end tables to the yeti whose friends are all hoaxes, turning each page leads to a new surprise. 

Readable in a matter of minutes, this book had both my husband and teen son reading it merrily aloud to me even though I had just read it myself.  Both stopped in the middle of their morning routines and read the book cover to cover, chuckling and laughing out loud. 

Get this in the hands of teens who will recognize the children’s format and also immediately get that this is a book that is not for the little ones.  It is a book that will have you laughing at death, much to your amazement and glee.