Dear TBR,
If I started a story with three random words and then told you to remember them, you might be a little confused, or a lot annoyed. But, if your name is Lois Lowry, you can do what you want, because you’ve earned the right, and readers familiar with the name know there will be a reward for their diligence.
I have to admit that I was a little …lost when I first began this slim volume. Eleven-year-old Sophia Henry Winslow is very definitely A Character. She is highly intelligent and highly idiosyncratic, with a love of tea and wordplay. She makes Statements and is the kind of person who just as easily discusses genetic markers and obscure disease as she discusses autumn leaves, or pets. In real life, she would either be a kid you really couldn’t stand or someone you really liked. Sophia’s classmates have, unfortunately, picked “can’t stand,” and she’s aware of that, and pragmatic. She is not to everyone’s taste – that’s partially why her hand-picked friends are two neighbor boys – one who is in her class, but more friendly in the neighborhood – and the other, a woman seventy-seven years older than she is.
Sophie Gershowitz is Sophia’s best friend. She’s also a character, though less stringently Original than Sophia. She’s funny in the blunt way that some aging people have, and she makes Judgments and has Opinions on everyone in the neighborhood. She’s part of the reason Sophia has so many opinions – and such a love of tea. One opinion that Sophie has is that her son is annoying. He’s always fussing at her, trying to get her to embrace technology and live in the current century. But Sophie doesn’t need a microwave or a cell phone or anything like that, she’s FINE. Sophia, of course, supports Sophie’s every impulse towards independence, as she’s on the other side of this, hoping to encourage her parents to see her newly eleven-year-old self as competent and able on her own. Unfortunately, both Sophia and Sophie meet with something neither was expecting. Sophie’s mind… isn’t what it used to be. And while Sophia hasn’t really noticed, Sophie’s annoying son has… and that’s going to change things, no matter what schemes or plans either one of them consider.
Due to Sophia’s personality – and a mind bursting with details about everything – the narrative felt a little scattered for me until the final chapters. More and more, Sophie turns her mind to the past, and Sophia shifts her focus to things that she can control in the present – which turns out to be holding memories for a beloved friend, and cherishing her own memories of the time they had together.
And then, abruptly, the story is over. Lowry has nothing more to say, and so she stops speaking. It’s a remarkably effective way to disallow the story to drift into grief. Instead of another sad tale, it is just… A thing that we dealt with for someone we love, the end.. A less seasoned author might not have pulled it off.
More and more over the past few years, I’ve been reading elementary and middle grade books about dementia and Alzheimers, and more and more, the subject isn’t just in the background, but books are talking frankly about what changes in a family, and how a young person can deal with being… forgotten. This matches the greater openness from the adults in their lives who are struggling with being sandwiched between needs from younger and older generations while they themselves are moving into new stages of life. For readers who want more, Reading Middle Grade has a nice list of more recent books on the topic.
Fresh onto the TBR:
- Kiki’s Delivery Service, Eiko Kadono
- Flowerheart, by Katherine Bakewell
- The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst
Until the next book, 📖
Still A Constant Reader
