Just as growing old is not for sissies, growing up is not for the faint of heart.
I’ve never met a teenager who hasn’t gone through their own flavor of struggle to arrive where they are. Everyone knows being a teenager is rough, but childhood can be rough, too. Most children experience some hard stuff within their circle of family and friends: a death, a move, family strife in the form of divorce, illness, or addiction, friendship challenges like betrayal—these are all common parts of children’s lives.
Books can help. Books can be a place where a child gets to “escape” their own life—journeying into someone else’s, instead. Stories exercise our emotions. Books can prompt needed emotional release. Books help normalize a child’s experience. When they read of other children experiencing similar struggles, their own seem more acceptable and more manageable.
Speaking for myself, being shy, an only girl among brothers, and moving a lot, books held all my dearest friends and allies. I depended on books for many things.
Today’s book recommendations bring characters with real-life challenges center stage. Each finds solace in friendship and healing with family members. I enjoyed both.
Eleven and Holding by Mary Penney stars eleven-year-old Macy, who has no intention of turning twelve without her dad by her side. She’s a rough-and tumble tomboy (like Piper, my girl hero!), she’s recently lost her beloved grandmother, and nothing is the same. No one will be straight with Macy about where her dad is, or why he’s not home. When Macy crashes headlong into the truth, she finds that knowing can be a heavy burden. As stated inside the book jacket, “Mary Penny’s earnest, heartfelt story of change, loss, and new beginnings will stay in reader’s heart long after it’s done.”
The theme of friendship as life and heart-saving is one I love—as you know it runs strong in Piper Pan and Her Merry Band. Macy’s friendship with Twee is especially endearing.
Counting Thyme, debut novel by Melanie Conklin, brings the theme of cancer treatment and how it affects family members to light. In this case, it’s eleven-year-old Thyme Owen’s little brother Val who has neuroblastoma. Thyme’s family has moved from San Diego to New York City in order for Val to be part of an experimental trial. Thyme loves Val with every fiber of her being, but that doesn’t erase the heartache of being far from her best friend, her grandmother, and her secret garden. Neither does it make starting school in a new place where she knows no one any easier. Thyme desperately wants to go back home—but it looks more and more like Val needs to stay—and he needs his family with him.
Thyme’s journey to make new friends while bringing her whole self to the plate is very dear—learning to understand she is still loved even when it seems like all the time, attention, and energy goes to Val.
These are real world growing up problems, indeed, and journeying through them with Macy and Thyme was bittersweet, and memorable. Both authors bring in plenty of humor—the books aren’t dark by any measure.
If your heart feels heavy, pick up Counting Thyme or Eleven and Holding (or both!) The road to healing is one we all appreciate!
Happy Reading!