Once in awhile, the right book falls into the hands of the right person at the right time; and it is Exactly what they needed. This is what happened to me as I just grabbed this book off the shelf only because it was a Truman Award Nominee and I had a three day 4th of July weekend coming up. I had only started the book when I left for the holiday weekend to visit family. When I returned, I was shaken and saddened over a terrible tragedy that befell one of my distant relatives over that weekend. Overall I just felt helpless in not knowing what I could say or do to help and comfort my family membersI was at first disturbed when I continued reading this book only to find out that the "tragedy" was very close to what had just occurred in my family's life. However, I kept reading because I wanted to see if the book had any insights into how to explain the un-explainable. Why do terrible things seem to randomly happen in life? and when tragedy strikes, what can we do to pick up the pieces? Of course the book cannot explain why bad things happen, but it acknowledges that life can be terribly unfair at times.
I would never suggest that someone who has been directly affected by a loss and is grieving be given this book "to make things better". But I am suggesting that anybody, especially teens, that want to understand what kinds of thoughts and emotions a grieving person goes through should read this book. The book does a great job showing the main character's process and conflicting emotions from anger, helplessness, loss of faith, feelings of guilt and blame, extreme sadness, and loneliness. It also shows the things people do and say to help bring a grieving family back to life after such sadness.
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