A compassionate guide that can help parents and kids with tough questions.
A debut book steers young readers and their families through experiences of loss.
Twin stories in rhyming verses gently treat the death of a pet dog and parental divorce. The language is simple, often lilting, and should be attractive to grade school readers. Adolphe’s list of definitions at the back of each tale welcomes children to the pleasures of learning more words. Some entries seem a bit surprising, such as “Die/Died,” given the obvious subject matter of the volume, but others are both charming and important: “Embrace” (“to put arms around someone”), “Grief,” “Love,” “Embarrassed,” and “Ashamed.” The list encourages readers to accept the truth of their feelings. “Skipper Can No Longer Play” tells the story of a beloved dog who ages, still eager to see his boy, Oscar J, but is slowing down in his activities and agility. One day when Oscar comes home from school, Skip is gone. Mom explains that this disappearance is difficult but necessary: “Just as each year green leaves age, / Turn brown and fall dead from a tree, / All that is now living one day will die.” At first, Oscar thinks it must be his fault, for not minding his mother or not eating his vegetables, but she reassures him that something more mysterious is at work, and that Skip can be held in the memory. “Memory” and “Imagination” would have been useful terms for the definitions list, as they name the abstract concepts the book works hard to illustrate through narrative and dialogue. Oscar’s resourceful mother tells him to picture Skip frolicking and running, even misbehaving. As the mental images add up, some with humorous memories attached, the pain lessens. “Daddy Can No Longer Stay” likewise reaches for a comforting, positive outcome; Oscar is still not to blame, and he can look forward to seeing his father often, just in a different house. “So,” asks Oscar, “does this mean you both still love me and want me as your son?” His dad answers that they were the “proudest parents on earth!” the very day he was born.
A compassionate guide that can help parents and kids with tough questions.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4918-7992-4
Page Count: 54
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after...
Self-help advice and personal reflections on avoiding spousal fights while raising children.
Before her daughter was born, bestselling author Dunn (Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask, 2009, etc.) enjoyed steady work and a happy marriage. However, once she became a mother, there never seemed to be enough time, sleep, and especially help from her husband. Little irritations became monumental obstacles between them, which led to major battles. Consequently, they turned to expensive couples' therapy to help them regain some peace in life. In a combination of memoir and advice that can be found in most couples' therapy self-help books, Dunn provides an inside look at her own vexing issues and the solutions she and her husband used to prevent them from appearing in divorce court. They struggled with age-old battles fought between men and women—e.g., frequency of sex, who does more housework, who should get up with the child in the middle of the night, why women need to have a clean house, why men need more alone time, and many more. What Dunn learned via therapy, talks with other parents, and research was that there is no perfect solution to the many dynamics that surface once couples become parents. But by using time-tested techniques, she and her husband learned to listen, show empathy, and adjust so that their former status as a happy couple could safely and peacefully morph into a happy family. Readers familiar with Dunn's honest and humorous writing will appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at her own semi-messy family life, and those who need guidance through the rough spots can glean advice while being entertained—all without spending lots of money on couples’ therapy.
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after the birth of their child.Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-26710-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A miscellany of paternal pride (and frustration) darkened by the author’s increasing realizations of his mortality.
Ruminations and reminiscences of an author—now in his 70s—about fatherhood, writing, and death.
O’Brien (July, July, 2002, etc.), who achieved considerable literary fame with both Going After Cacciato (1978) and The Things They Carried (1990), returns with an eclectic assembly of pieces that grow increasingly valedictory as the idea of mortality creeps in. (The title comes from the author’s uncertainty about his ability to assemble these pieces in a single volume.) He begins and ends with a letter: The initial one is to his first son (from 2003); the terminal one, to his two sons, both of whom are now teens (the present). Throughout the book, there are a number of recurring sections: “Home School” (lessons for his sons to accomplish), “The Magic Show” (about his long interest in magic), and “Pride” (about his feelings for his sons’ accomplishments). O’Brien also writes often about his own father. One literary figure emerges as almost a member of the family: Ernest Hemingway. The author loves Hemingway’s work (except when he doesn’t) and often gives his sons some of Papa’s most celebrated stories to read and think and write about. Near the end is a kind of stand-alone essay about Hemingway’s writings about war and death, which O’Brien realizes is Hemingway’s real subject. Other celebrated literary figures pop up in the text, including Elizabeth Bishop, Andrew Marvell, George Orwell, and Flannery O’Connor. Although O’Brien’s strong anti-war feelings are prominent throughout, his principal interest is fatherhood—specifically, at becoming a father later in his life and realizing that he will miss so much of his sons’ lives. He includes touching and amusing stories about his toddler sons, about the sadness he felt when his older son became a teen and began to distance himself, and about his anguish when his sons failed at something.
A miscellany of paternal pride (and frustration) darkened by the author’s increasing realizations of his mortality.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-618-03970-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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