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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Arnold 2015 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | J FICTION ARNOLD | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J Arnold, E. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Sixth-grader Iris Abernathy hates life in Corvallis, Oregon, where her family just moved. It's always raining, and everything is so wet . Besides, nothing has felt right since Iris's best friend, Sarah, died.
When Iris meets Boris, an awkward mouth-breather with a know-it-all personality, she's not looking to make a new friend, but it beats eating lunch alone. Then she learns that Boris's very existence is a medical mystery, maybe even a miracle, and Iris starts to wonder why some people get miracles and others don't. And if one miracle is possible, can another one be too? Can she possibly communicate with Sarah again?
Author Notes
ELANA K. ARNOLD completed her M.A. in Creative Writing/Fiction at the University of California, Davis. She grew up in Southern California, where she was lucky enough to have a family who let her read as many books as she wanted. She is the author of several young adult novels as well as the middle-grade novels The Question of Miracles and Far from Fair. She lives in Huntington Beach, California, with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of animals. Visit her website at www.elanakarnold.com . "
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Iris is starting sixth grade in a new school in Oregon-new house, new people, new life. Her parents want to distract her from the recent death of her best friend in California. The incessant rain echoes her state of mind and she turns away from potential friends, seeking instead someone she can barely tolerate-so that she must only endure minimal interaction. His name is Boris, and while he is obviously an outcast, Iris prefers to be on the outskirts right now. Her brain is grappling with unanswerable questions-is the essence of Sarah out there somewhere? Would Sarah's spirit follow her to her new house? Iris explores possible avenues to find the answers-priests, a psychic, and an experiment with electronic voice phenomena. Iris's relationship with Boris transmutes into a real friendship as she expands her horizons to include him and even confide in him. Boris, meanwhile, enjoys the first real friendship he has had in a long time. This is a realistic view of grief, with particular emphasis on the agonizing longing to know if a lost loved one is truly out there somewhere. Iris's stay-at-home dad fills the story with great flavors and textures-from the baby chicks he hatches to his homemade bread, giving the story a cozy touch despite Iris's impossible quest for answers. Recommended for larger collections and anywhere a new title on grieving is needed.-Kathy Cherniavsky, Ridgefield Library, CT (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Arnold (Sacred) sensitively examines grief and the big questions that arise when someone dies unexpectedly. Sixth-grader Iris Abernathy's family moves from California to Corvallis, Ore., shortly after the death of Iris's best friend Sarah. Iris wants nothing to do with her rainy new home ("She hated it, even if it was beautiful"), her father's ambitious plans to grow a lush garden and raise chickens, or anyone at school-until she meets kind outsider Boris. After Iris learns that Boris barely survived infancy (his devoutly Catholic family believes his inexplicable medical recovery was a genuine miracle and is attempting to have it certified as such by the Vatican), she is inspired to attempt to contact Sarah's ghost, who Iris thinks is currently residing in the cabinet under the stairs in the old farmhouse they have moved into. Arnold's heroine confronts her emotions honestly (even when she's putting on a brave face to mask what she really thinks or feels), and her slow, difficult journey to understand the absence left in Sarah's wake unfolds with heartbreaking believability. Ages 9-12. Agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Sixth-grader Iris, mourning the death of her friend Sarah in a car accident, seeks to make sense of the tragedy. She wants to know why Sarah died when she, Iris, standing just a few feet away, survived. Iris feels Sarahs presence and tries various ways of communicating with her, including mirror gazing and electronic voice phenomena, a technique she finds on the internet. When she discovers that her new friend Boris was a miracle baby who survived near-fatal problems in utero, she fixates on the concept of miracles. In the course of her search for meaning, Iris initially rejects the consolations offered by religion, her parents, and her therapist. In the end, though, it is precisely those consolations -- the power of memory, the cycle of nature, the value of metaphorical thinking -- and the solace of a new friend that help Iris pull through. Arnold tackles tough questions here, but she does so gently, with small, focused effects. Iriss parents are a bit kooky, but theyre not cartoons. Boris is an outsider, bullied at school, but confident in his own way. Church doctrine is not useful to Iris, but neither is it derided. Iris changes, but her growth is slightly shaky and provisional. In other words, realistic. sarah ellis (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Hoping for one particular miracle leads Iris to discover that life may be a series of them.Iris has moved from California to Oregon, where the change from sun to rain every day mirrors her sorrow after the death of her best friend, Sarah. Only one thing comforts her: She feels Sarah's ghost in the closet of her family's new house. Although Iris' parents want her to make friends, Iris would rather experience a miracle allowing her to talk with Sarah. She sees a vehicle to this miracle in her classmate Boris, who, some say, should have died as a baby but was miraculously healed in utero. Iris' longing is palpable, and her grief is tenderly portrayed. She toys with contacting Sarah through a physic or, with Boris, through Electronic Voice Phenomena (the principle that the dead are all around but we simply cannot hear them). She also wonders if prayers can provide a miraculous intercession, meets with a therapist and talks with her parents. Supported by a well-developed cast of characters, Iris moves through the process, sharing stories of loss with others, learning her own strengths and developing her friendship with Boris. Iris still misses Sarah but begins to feel hope and see small miracles of life all around her. Just as Iris finally embraces the rain, spinning round and round, readers, too, will recognize the circular patterns of love and loss, joy and grief, life and death. A quiet, affecting journey rendered with keen insight. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sixth-grader Iris hates her new home in rainy Corvallis, Oregon. The move from Southern California was ostensibly because of her mother's new job. But another compelling motivation was the accidental death of Iris' best friend, a tragedy that she witnessed. Iris finally makes a friend in Corvallis: Boris, a quirky nerd who is, just barely, better than nothing. Then Iris learns something astounding about Boris. He was not expected to live when he was born, but a group of nuns, dedicated to making Pope Paul a saint, prayed to him, and Boris was cured. An Italian committee from the Vatican is headed to Oregon to make sure that Boris' case can be counted as a miracle. This information intrigues Iris. Do miracles really happen? Who gets a miracle and who decides? And perhaps Iris' sense that Sarah is still around her may be the beginning of a miracle, if Iris can only make contact. The atmospherically dull, rain-swept landscape becomes almost another character as Iris tries to push away the fog, both literal and mental. She asks the questions that many children would ask in this circumstance, and the book puts a smart circle of caring adults to help her find answers. But it is her realistic relationship with the matter-of-fact Boris, a most unlikely miracle, that will catch readers and help pull them toward seeking answers of their own for the story's very large questions.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2014 Booklist