grief

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: A Path of Stars by Anne Sibley O’Brien

| Tasha

path of stars

A Path of Stars by Anne Sibley O’Brien

Dara has a close relationship with her grandmother, Lok Yeay, who tells her stories about life in Cambodia when she and her brother were growing up.  She remembers Cambodia as a place of beauty, filled with moon and star light.  Lok Yeay also shared her darker memories of the soldiers coming and hiding in the jungle until they could make their way to Thailand.  But when the phone call came and Lok Yeay found out that her brother had died, she stopped telling stories.  In fact, she stopped getting out of bed entirely and stopped eating.  The entire family was worried.  Dara went to the garden and picked a rose and a ripe tomato.  Then she put them on a tray along with a photograph of Lok Yeay’s brother and went into the darkness of her grandmother’s room.  They shared the tomato and prayed for her brother, and Dara shared a story of the future and going back to visit Cambodia.

Commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council, this book reflects the story of a family that survived the Killing Fields in Cambodia and came to Maine afterwards.  According to her author’s note, O’Brien did extensive research not only about Cambodia’s history but also about its culture and environment.  As a reader, it is clear that she took Cambodia into her heart and showed its beauty.  O’Brien focuses on the intergenerational relationships in the family, demonstrating the importance of the grandparent in the Cambodian culture.  Additionally, the book is about war, families torn apart, and grieving. 

The art in the book is done in oil paints and oil crayon.  It has a wonderful jewel-tone and great depth and richness.  The illustrations focus on the family relationship, none of them showing the atrocities of war at all. 

This is a strong picture book that looks at the Cambodian Americans and the violent history that they fled from.  Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Charlesbridge.

Review: You Are My Only by Beth Kephart

| Tasha

you are my only

You Are My Only by Beth Kephart

Emmy had one joy in life and that was Baby.  Otherwise she was trapped in a violent marriage at age 20.  So when Baby disappeared so did Emmy’s reason to live.  After she is saved from committing suicide by standing on the train tracks, she is committed to a state institution because of her breakdown.  Sophie is a teen who is kept hidden in her home by her mother.  They have moved often, running away from the No Good.  But as she looks out the window and meets Joey, his big dog, and his loving aunts, she is tempted to visit them for real.  Once there, she finds a home that is filled with warmth, love, sweet treats, good books, and everything that is missing from her own.  As their stories continue, readers will find themselves captured by the stories of a mother and daughter who lost each other long ago and are trying to find their way back to one another.

Kephart’s writing is breathtaking.  She uses language that breaks through, explains, dances and delights.  She can also use her words to create such sorrow, to build angst and amplify emotion until the reader is feeling it directly in their own skin.  Here is one such paragraph on Page 13 just after Baby has been stolen:

My baby is gone.  My baby is gone, and I should have called the police first thing.  I should have had a decent, right-thinking thought in my head instead of growing desperate in the trees, draining the day of precious daylight with my every failing footstep.  Peter came home to the red circle of the law’s lights, to the house torn inside out and bright with every watt we own.  To dogs in the woods and yellow rivers of light.  They told Peter right at the end of his second shift.  He smells like refinery and trouble, like the smoke up and down the Delaware River.

She also builds characters in the same way, allowing us to see inside them and to understand them more deeply than they do themselves.  The two female characters are both fragile to the point of fracturing, but also immensely strong in a way that is compelling and never tough.  Their stories parallel one another, both being held against their will, both unsure of what the future will bring, and both of them recovering from loss.

I must also mention the wonderful characters of Miss Cloris and Miss Helen.  At first they are assumed to be two sisters, but they are actually a lesbian couple.  It is a story of love that is told in small moments, gentle connections, and the brilliance of their adoration for one another.  It is also a lifetime of love, because they are both elderly and one is nearing death.  They are exactly the sort of gay characters we need in our teen literature.  They are beautiful, warm, nurturing and normal.

Teens will pick this book up for the story of a stolen baby and the tension of the mother and daughter finding one another.  On the way, they will read a phenomenal book of loss, love, imprisonment and freedom.  Mostly freedom.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Egmont.

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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.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review: Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann

| Tasha

bone dog

Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann

Right before his dog Ella died, she promised Gus that she would always be with him.  After she died, Gus didn’t feel like doing anything, not even leaving the house, but he did.  He didn’t feel like trick-or-treating, but he put on his skeleton costume and headed out anyway.  But when Gus started to head back home after his bag was full, he passed through a graveyard where it got dark and windy and creepy.  In moments, Gus was surrounded by skeletons, real ones.  At first the skeletons thought he was a real skeleton too, but when they found out that he was a boy, they threatened to steal his guts.  Just before anything happened, Ella showed up as a skeleton dog.  But what in the world can a small boy and a small skeleton dog do to stop a crowd of skeletons? 

If that paragraph above read like a rather strange storyline, then I wrote it correctly.  This is not a “normal” picture book.  It has a wonderfully shivery, scary part to it combined with the loss of a beloved pet, and then a great funny twist at the end.  It is not a disjointed book at all, but rather one that is unexpected which makes for a fun read. 

Rohmann’s art is done in his signature style.  The thick black lines mix successfully with the deep and subtle colors.  What grabs the eye is Rohmann’s layout of the pages, where whitespace is used as more than space for the words to appear.  The style stays consistent throughout the book, but the perspective is intriguing and adds much to the book.

A strange and superb choice for Halloween reading, this book should be shared throughout the year too as a celebration of intriguing, unique picture books.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Book Review: Slog’s Dad by David Almond

| Tasha

slogsdad

Slog’s Dad by David Almond, illustrated by Dave McKean

Originally a short story, this small book is eerie, haunting and achingly sad.  Slog’s father is dead and he knows it.  But when he sees the scruffy man outside the butcher shop, he knows that it is his father who has returned to see him.  But Davie, his best friend, is just as convinced that this man is a fake.  The story explores the way that Slog’s father died, slowly and by tangible steps.  It is a story of grief but also one of hope that asks unanswerable questions and allows readers to stay in the in-between world where hope thrives but so does doubt.

Almond and McKean paired up for The Savage, an amazing work of fiction.  This story is gentler and hopeful.  It quietly explores grief, allowing the poignant moments to live, hover and hope.  It is a story of dreams and beauty, of the unexpected and the amazing.  Almond’s writing is at times so blunt that it is traumatic and unblinking.  At other times, it is eerie and bizarre.  And at still others it is haunting, hopeful and trembling.

McKean’s illustrations help bring the story to a new level.  From the almost photographic detail of some of them, where the warped faces are the only clue that you are not looking at a photograph to the line drawings that soar with greens and blues hovering above heads.  These are illustrations that explore the emotions of the book.  They are not concerned with a unified look and feel, but with the look and feel that is right for that moment in the story. 

A gorgeous work of writing and art, this book is a testament to grief, hope and wonder.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Book Review–Where She Went by Gayle Forman

| Tasha

whereshewent

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

The sequel to If I Stay tells the story of what happened in the three years since the accident that killed Mia’s family and left her choosing between life and death.  The three years since Mia headed to Julliard and left Adam behind, completely.  Now Adam is a rock star living in LA, riding on the fame that his songs of heartbreak and anger created.  Songs that were inspired by his loss of Mia.  But the life of a rock star is not working out well for Adam.  He has to take medication to calm himself down, is no longer traveling or living with his band, and worries that he may have to leave music behind entirely.  In one final evening before he leaves on a long tour, the impossible happens and he meets up with Mia at one of her concerts.  The two of them explore Mia’s New York, and explore the accident and devastation that caused them to pull apart.

This sequel is just as beautifully written as the first book.  Forman excels at exploring emotion, writing it in such a way that it causes readers to feel it inside their own skin.  Without overwriting at all, Forman creates a lyrical and sparking prose that rings with truth and feelings.  In this second book, she explores betrayal, abandonment, grief and success. 

The characters have nicely grown since the first book, showing that the three years have changed them but not enough to leave readers behind.  These young adults bear the scars of their previous relationship, scars that imprint so many of their choices and reactions.  And then we have the city of New York, which is almost a character herself.  The background to the reunion that serves as action and adventure for the characters.

A compelling, surprising and haunting sequel.  This is one that fans of If I Stay will be satisfied and enthralled by.  Appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Penguin Young Readers Group.

Check out the book trailer:

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Harry & Hopper

| Tasha

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Harry & Hopper by Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood

Harry got Hopper when he was a jumpy puppy.  He taught him to sit, stay and play ball.  The two of them were inseparable.  Hopper even slept with Harry, moving from the bottom of the bed to the top over the course of the night.   But then Harry came home from school and Hopper wasn’t there.  His father broke the news of the accident gently to Harry, explaining that Hopper had died.  Harry couldn’t sleep in the bed he shared with Hopper, so he started sleeping on the couch instead.  At school, Harry couldn’t tell anyone about what had happened.  That night, Harry was awoken from sleeping on the couch by a dog leaping by the window.  It was Hopper!  The two of them spent the night together playing.  The same thing happened night after night, but Hopper was getting less solid and less warm.  Eventually, Harry had to say goodbye to Hopper.

This book should come with a box of tissues.  Sniffle.  Wild depicts the bond between boy and dog with a clarity that makes it very tangible and real.  The loss comes quickly and without prelude, jarring the reader.  As Harry moves through his grief, the return of Hopper brings that process into a similarly tangible state.  The slow disappearance of Hopper over the nights, depicts the acceptance of loss.  Harry’s grief never comes to full resolution, something that is particularly beautiful about this book and its writing. 

This book won the Kate Greenaway medal for its illustrations, and rightly so!  Blackwood’s illustrations are done in laser print on watercolor paper with watercolor, gouache and charcoal.  They have a charm to them that is emphasized by the use of lines to slow motion.  Additionally, the shadows that appear with the grief add to the darker feeling of that section of the book.  Through it all, there is a warm light in the darkness, often provided by Harry and Hopper themselves. 

A beautiful book of loss and grief, this book deserves a spot in libraries where it is sure to find an audience.  Perhaps offer a Kleenex as a bookmark upon check out.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Feiwel and Friends.

Check out a gallery of the illustration on the Guardian website.

The Properties of Water

| Tasha

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The Properties of Water by Hannah Roberts McKinnon

Released October 26, 2010

For Lace, the lake she has grown up living on has been an integral part of her childhood and her life.  All of the seasons of the lake, as well as the sounds and smells of it, are the background to her days.  When her older sister, Marni, is injured jumping into the lake from a height, Lace is unable to return to her beloved lake or even to the city’s swimming pool.  Lace works to continue having some order to her life, but her mother is hours away caring for her sister, her father is grieving himself, and her grandparents dart in and out of her summer.  There is the new family care giver, Willa Dodge, but Lace sees her as an invader and perhaps even a thief.  One happy part of her summer is that an older boy is paying attention to her.  As Lace faces her first summer without her older sister, she begins to realize that everything has changed and she can do very little to repair any of it.

Written with a clear voice, this book has lustrous prose that makes Lace’s struggles come beautifully to life. 

To show the author’s skill with words, I have to share one passage, though there were many to choose from:

He sinks on the bench beside me, and we sit, shoulder to shoulder, like two battered bookends holding up all the sadness in the world.  This time I put my arm around him, and Cinder wedges under the bench beneath us, his black fur collecting our tears like gemstones.

This is a book about grief and the horrible time when grieving seems like the wrong thing to be doing, but forward motion is impossible too.  It is the story of a loving, devoted family torn apart by an accident.  It is Lace’s story and the lake’s story.  It is about the power of nature, the horror of brain injury, and the healing powers of time and love (as well as a great dog). 

This very short book by today’s standards is a small jewel.  It is dazzling as it shows emotions so thoroughly that it is like readers are experiencing it themselves.  Her prose is deep and radiant, but never leaves a young reader puzzling.  Rather her images are taken straight from the world of the lake, of summer and of sadness.

Highly recommended, this book is a great choice for tweens who will understand everything that Lace is feeling.  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from ARC received from Farrar Straus Giroux.