Synopses & Reviews
A young boy recounts the past year of his family's life in this carefully crafted and sensitively illustrated chapter book. Soon after the narrator's ninth birthday and his dad's fortieth birthday, celebrated together with a deliciously gooey pineapple upside-down cake, Dad becomes sick. Before long it's obvious he won't be getting better. As his father grows weaker, the narrator struggles with anger, guilt, fear, and grief-emotions that intensify when his father finally passes away. Ultimately the narrator realizes that all his feelings are normal. What's more, it's okay to be happy, even to celebrate his next birthday with another upside-down cake. Basing the story on the experiences of her own family, Carol Carrick has written a moving and restorative book for any child who must confront loss.
Review
"A well-written book on a difficult subject."
Review
"A well-written book on a difficult subject." School Library Journal
Carrick (Melanie, 1996, etc.) sensitively explores the pain of a parent's death through the eyes, feelings, and voice of a nine-year-old boy whose world turns upside down when his father becomes terminally ill with cancer. Through a fictional reminiscence, the story explores many of the issues common to children whose parents are illloss of control, changes in physical appearance and mental ability, upsets in daily routine, experiences of guilt and anger, the reaction of friends, and, most of all, a fear of the unknown.... This title...will fill a special niche for children struggling to deal with the trauma of parental sickness and death.
Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Carol Carrick has written more than twenty-five well-received books for Clarion, including PATRICK'S DINOSAURS, one of the many books illustrated by her late husband, Donald Carrick. She lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts.