If you're raising kids, or if you're just interested in how people behave, I can't recommend highly enough Kevin Henkes's new novel "Sweeping Up the Heart."
This is geared toward third or fourth graders, but, as with any good book, Henkes's work is universal. I don't imagine I'll ever outgrow it.
"Sweeping Up the Heart" concerns a little girl who has grown up without a mom. She spends most of her free time at a local ceramics studio, working on tiny molded rabbits. There, she meets a boy her age with similar interests, and the two get swept up in a drama. The boy becomes convinced that a local woman is the protagonist's dead mother in disguise--a visitor from beyond the grave!
Of course, the boy is wrong, but, being sensitive, he *has* picked up on something extraordinary about the local woman. The woman is linked with the protagonist's life in a surprising, inevitable way. The unfolding of various secrets gives you great pleasure: You might as well be stumbling upon the solution to a P.D. James murder mystery.
I admire so many things about Henkes, but I'll list a few here. The first thing you notice is that he doesn't judge any of his characters, and he helps you understand how each and every person behaves. The term "Chekhovian compassion" comes to mind, which is silly, because you're reading a kids' book with rabbit pictures.
Also: Henkes doesn't write what anyone else would write. The protagonist--and her particular struggles--couldn't come from anyone else. There's no formula. Nothing seems forced.
And, lastly, Henkes tackles things that other writers might shy away from. This is a quiet novel, but it's also a novel about death and divorce, and it's a novel that explicitly considers pain, human failure, and unending uncertainty. It does all that, but it doesn't feel inappropriate for a kid, and it also doesn't feel like a sermon.
I don't think I'm overselling anything here--but, also, this isn't a book you'll discover attached to a Janet Maslin review in the NYT. And that's a shame. Pick it up if you're looking for something to move you this weekend.
This is geared toward third or fourth graders, but, as with any good book, Henkes's work is universal. I don't imagine I'll ever outgrow it.
"Sweeping Up the Heart" concerns a little girl who has grown up without a mom. She spends most of her free time at a local ceramics studio, working on tiny molded rabbits. There, she meets a boy her age with similar interests, and the two get swept up in a drama. The boy becomes convinced that a local woman is the protagonist's dead mother in disguise--a visitor from beyond the grave!
Of course, the boy is wrong, but, being sensitive, he *has* picked up on something extraordinary about the local woman. The woman is linked with the protagonist's life in a surprising, inevitable way. The unfolding of various secrets gives you great pleasure: You might as well be stumbling upon the solution to a P.D. James murder mystery.
I admire so many things about Henkes, but I'll list a few here. The first thing you notice is that he doesn't judge any of his characters, and he helps you understand how each and every person behaves. The term "Chekhovian compassion" comes to mind, which is silly, because you're reading a kids' book with rabbit pictures.
Also: Henkes doesn't write what anyone else would write. The protagonist--and her particular struggles--couldn't come from anyone else. There's no formula. Nothing seems forced.
And, lastly, Henkes tackles things that other writers might shy away from. This is a quiet novel, but it's also a novel about death and divorce, and it's a novel that explicitly considers pain, human failure, and unending uncertainty. It does all that, but it doesn't feel inappropriate for a kid, and it also doesn't feel like a sermon.
I don't think I'm overselling anything here--but, also, this isn't a book you'll discover attached to a Janet Maslin review in the NYT. And that's a shame. Pick it up if you're looking for something to move you this weekend.
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