Blue Eyes Better

After her fifteen-year-old brother is killed in a drunk-driving accident, Tessa's life is dramatically altered after her mother runs away and leaves her alone with her mourning father to deal with their shattered family.

Gr 4-6-The book describes 11-year-old Tessa's inward journey toward health and peace after suffering the sudden loss of her teenage brother in a drunk-driving accident. She desperately needs the comfort of her mother, who barely seems to notice her. She watches helplessly as her mother decides to leave home and spend time with her sister. Tessa and her father return to the routines of their daily life and find comfort and support at every turn. On her delivery of the weekly neighborhood newspaper she makes new friends, including a substitute grandmother who talks with her about loss. Her teachers are kind, especially her unconventional music teacher, who encourages her to join the track team and to record her thoughts about her brother. As Tessa talks and writes in her journal, she recognizes her conflicting emotions. She remembers how mean her brother had often been to her. She is guilt ridden for not telling her parents that she knew his plans the night he was killed, and feels anger at her brother for lying. But she also recalls some simple gifts he gave her and some special times they had together. Although the book begins with the jolting darkness of confusion and devastation, its tone is one of hope. Psychological survival stories often have a more limited audience than those with more physical action, but those interested in the drama of coping and healing will find a convincing portrait of a girl and her family rebuilding their lives after tragedy.

Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

With nary a superfluous scene or a wasted word, Wallace-Brodeur (Steps in Time; Callie's Way) crafts a deeply moving novel exploring a family's loss and grieving.When her 16-year-old brother, Scott, dies in a car accident, 10-year-old Tessa grapples with enormous guilt: although her parents thought Scott was spending the evening at the movies with his longtime best friend, Tessa had known that he was going to take a ride in the car of another, much wilder, boy, who, as it turns out, was drinking that night. Tessa's mother who always doted on her blue-eyed son, with whom she felt a "kindred spirit" retreats into her all-encompassing pain and leaves hazel-eyed Tessa and her father to stay with her sister on Cape Cod. The child then finds solace in the company of a grandmotherly neighbor and a progressive music teacher (who doubles as track coach), both of whom have suffered a loss of their own. Through their experiences, they help Tessa to grieve and to understand her mother's struggle. Tessa's first-person narrative reflects every nuance of the girl's feelings. As Tessa walks her neighborhood streets after her brother's funeral, her life irrevocably changed, she is struck by the steadiness of nature: "An eyelash moon gleamed in the sky above their house. After all that had happened, there it was." The author similarly portrays the contradictions of loss and renewal: Scott's absence also makes room for Tessa to blossom she discovers her athletic abilities as she pursues the 800-meter dash, and explores her propensity for music. At the urging of her music teacher, Tessa buys a notebook to record her memories of Scott the bad as well as the good and her honest entries add another poignant dimension. A fine choice for any middle-grader coping with grief or a grieving parent, and an exquisite example of spare, honest prose. Ages 10-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* Gr. 4-6. "At my brother's funeral . . ." From the first words, this small, beautiful novel is rooted in hard fact, true to 11-year-old Tessa's experience after her older brother is killed in a drunk-driving accident. There's no sentimentality, not an abstract word of message or medicine. Tessa remembers good and bad, and the rhythm of her sentences expresses her sorrow, anger, guilt, jealousy, and love ("Scott could be a real jerk sometimes. I was tired of thinking about him . . . He didn't like me . . . I wish Scott was here now"). The images are simple poetry, as when she sees her father cry: "He was in the garden with his head down on the hoe handle. His shoulders were shaking." Her grandparents are too self-absorbed to help her, but she finds a bubbe in an elderly Jewish neighbor. Her best friend is there for her, too, and running on the track team helps. For a while a loving teacher is like a parent, but no one's perfect. The taut center of the book is Tessa's relationship with her mother, whose angry withdrawal and depression feel like personal rejection. When Mom finally reaches out to Tessa, their embrace is the climax of the action, almost unbearable to read. There are many useful self-help books for children coping with death, but this is gripping family drama. Hazel Rochman
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