Quite simply, a stunning book of a young girl alone, as her mother cannot help Kaia as alons, she grieves the loss of her brother.

She found him, now she must find the way out of the powerful hold of grief. Previously, a honor student, now she slips rapidly into sadness that cannot allow her to find a way back.

A boy appears outside the school window. When he arrives inside, he jumps on the desks, howls like a wild animal and refuses to behave. He sticks by Kaia, never saying words, simply sitting by her.

The mother who cannot stop drinking her way through the sadness cannot help her, but this wild boy seems to take her mind off the tragic loss.

This is a wonderful tale of loss and grief and trying as best as possible to climb out of the deep well of sadness.

Excellent.

Five Stars! ( )

Eleven-year-old Kaia is frozen in time, a horrendous, unimaginable time; the day she found her brother Moses in his bloody bed, dead. Her mother, who has lost her job, numbs herself with booze, Kaia with not talking, withdrawing from everyone at school where she’s known as "the freak", not even daring to read any books at a higher reading level than when her brother was alive. In their frozen states, Kaia and her mother do not talk about that life-changing day a year ago. Suddenly a silent, wild boy in tattered clothes appears at school and becomes Kaia’s constant companion. With spare, simple text, this hope-filled novel, written for tweens, easily draws us in and portrays the difficult, complex process of grieving.

Sharyn H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

( )

A beautiful book that deals with loss, isolation and the grieving process with sensitivity and humour. ( )

I did like this story for a few reasons. The first reason I liked the story is that it forced the reader to broaden their perspectives. Having the story be about a sister who loses her brother to suicide is something that not everyone will have to endure in their life, so it is able to show a new perspective. I know personally, this is something I have not endured in my life, so this was all new information for me. I can understand that this story would be difficult for some readers to read because the topic does become very deep at certain points. Readers might feel uncomfortable reading the details about the suicide, this is also able to push readers to think about the difficult situation. Having readers be enlightened about this difficult situation will also help them to be more compassionate to people who are enduring similar situations. During multiple sections of the book Kaia is called a freak for how she acting after her brother’s death, but this only makes her situation worse. Having readers witness this will allow them to not repeat the same mistakes. Another reason I liked the story was because I thought the main character, Kaia, is believable. Throughout the story Kaia describes herself as being frozen. She is frozen in her life and is unable to move on from the loss of her brother. I think this is a very relatable term for people who have lost someone close to them. It is often hard to move on after losing such a big part of your life. Having a character that is relatable to readers allow to see themselves in the story and become more engaged in the story. Another thing that I liked about the story was the engaging plot. The story had a character “the wild boy” who was described as never speaking, and his only communication was through his grey eyes. This character was able to add a lot of suspense to the story. The boy always did what he wanted, even when it was not socially acceptable. He would yell, and jump around, and this keeps readers always wondering what he would do next. Having an engaging plot keeps readers wanting to continue with the story to see what is going to happen next. A last reason I liked the story was because I thought the language was patterned. It often repeated phrases throughout the story, and this helped to emphasize important phrases in the story. This also helped to emphasize the emotions in the text. When Kaia appeared to be feeling overwhelmed Kaia would then repeat phrases, which is what I find myself doing sometimes in my head when I feel overwhelmed too. This was an added touch to the story that helped to give the text its own character. I believe the overall big picture of the story is that it is okay to take time to overcome loses. Kaia could not rush getting over the death of her brother, but she did not have to. It was good that she took her time and was able to deal with everything on her own terms. ( )