“This book is definitely an attention-grabber from the start. It begins by saying, “Just let me say right off the bat, it was a bike accident.” (3) After only one page, the reader is well aware of the story’s topic—the narrator’s younger brother has died due to a head injury. Throughout the story, the narrator shares the struggles she and her family go through as they deal with the death of her brother, Mick. I thought it was a good book, and I feel it might help children that have lost someone close to them. It shows them that they are not alone—people of all ages lose loved ones every day.
In this story, Phoebe is dealing with a “Person against self” conflict. After finding out that her brother has passed away, she and her parents become different people. Everything changes—“Our lives got simpler in ways, too. Like we didn’t talk that much because nothing seemed important enough to say.” (32) Because her parents basically shut down, Phoebe was left dealing with her brother’s death on her own. She felt she was all alone—that no one could understand what she was going through. When her friend Zoe tried to comfort her, she said “the idea that anyone could comfort me was almost insulting, if you want to know the truth.” (21) It made Phoebe even more upset when people would say it was all a part of God’s plan—which made her begin to question God and his power.
The morning of Mick’s accident, Phoebe and him get into a fight about a tattoo inside a cereal box. She wanted the tattoo, he took it and gave it to her dad, and then she called him a mean name. This was her final conversation with her brother, and it broke her heart to think that she had lost him without being able to say good-bye or at least have been on good terms. This story teaches you to fill your life with love and not hate. You never know when someone is going to be out of your life forever, and so you should treat each moment as though it might be the last. My brother and I have a lot of small fights—but after reading this book, it really puts things into perspectives. I might not be happy with all he says or does, but I need to step back and think, is it really worth getting upset over?
Family is an important focus of this story. The relationship between Mick and Phoebe is a typical sibling relationship. Once he took the tattoo from Phoebe, she says, “I should probably mention that I didn’t really want the tattoo. But that wasn’t the point. The point was, I didn’t want him to have it. Which I think is a perfectly legitimate reason for fighting.” (8) I can really relate to this quote because there are many times my brother and I fight and when I think about it, I really wonder why we are even wasting our breath fighting. Half the time it is not something that I want, but I do not feel he should have it too—for example, my old car. I bought it, after a few years, I got a new one, and then my parents got my old car. After a few months, they gave it to my brother… for free! I wasn’t happy—but it’s not like I wanted the car back!
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Danielle L wrote this review Sunday, September 7 2008.
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