MMGM: What I Came To Tell You by Tommy Hays

Published: September 24, 2013
ISBN: 1606844334
Genre: Middle grade, contemporary
Publisher: Egmont, USA
Themes: friendship, family, place, home, loss
Add it on: Goodreads, / Amazon / Barnes And Noble/ *Indie Bound*

About the Book: Since his mother died earlier this year, Grover Johnston (named after a character in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel) has watched his family fall to pieces as his father throws himself into his work rather than dealing with the pain. Left to care for his younger sister, Sudie, Grover finds solace in creating intricate weavings out of the natural materials found in the bamboo forest behind his North Carolina home, a pursuit that his father sees only as a waste of time.

But as tensions mount between father and son, two unlikely forces conspire to lead the Johnstons on a new path -- a presence that seems to come to Grover in his darkest moments and new tenants in the rental house across the street who have come from deep in the Carolina hills and plopped themselves right into Grover's life. The families seem so different but become increasingly intertwined, bound together in unexpected ways. Until one devastating disaster threatens to tear them apart.

Tender, touching, and utterly compelling, What I Came to Tell You, the first middle-grade novel from critically acclaimed Asheville author Tommy Hays, is a story of grief, love, and hard-won redemption.

First Line: Before their mother became Buddhist, she would take Grover and his sister to the First Presbyterian Church downtown.

What Others Are Saying: "Though the book spans just a few months, it's packed with incident and complex connections between a range of characters. Hays is especially strong at depicting the network of people, old and young, who help Grover and his family move through their grief and, along the way, save his beloved forest." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"Hays’ story is filled with touching honesty and youthful wisdom, all of which help undergird Grover’s own discovery of the healing power of family, love, and art." —Booklist Review

Bloggers Weigh In:

Pen and Prose

The Reading Life

Vicki Lane Mysteries

What I Thought: "What I Came To Tell You," is the kind of book that starts out quiet, builds slowly, ends too soon and leaves an emotional punch that stays with you long afterward. This would be an excellent book to read-aloud, because it may begin too slowly for some middle grade readers. These types of books are few and far between and often lost in the action-packed fantasy and non-stop humor books that fill our middle grade shelves. The characters alone are worth the trip to Asheville, North Carolina, where the book is set. As an educator, I see several wonderful tie-ins for integrated curriculum: art-weaving, math-grids, literature-Wolfe, science-nature and conservation. I still have a great desire to create my own weaving of twigs, grasses and leaves. I highly recommend this book because of it's themes and opportunities for dialogue. 

Photo by Michael Mauney

About The Author: Tommy Hays

Website

Facebook

Interview with Jo Maeder

Who: Executive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and Lecturer in the Master of Liberal Arts program at UNC Asheville. He teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Murray State University.

His adult novel, The Pleasure Was Mine, was a Finalist for the SIBA Fiction Award in 2006, and has been chosen for numerous community reads, including the One City, One Book program in Greensboro and the Amazing Read in Greenville, SC. The novel was read on National Public Radio’s “Radio Reader” and South Carolina ETVRadio’s “Southern Read”. His other adult novels are Sam’s Crossing, which has been recently re-released, and In the Family Way, winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.

A member of the National Book Critics Circle, he received his BA in English from Furman University and graduated from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Asheville with his wife, Connie, and their two children, Max and Ruth. —Authors Website

Be sure to stop by the other MMGM book reviewers. You can find them in my sidebar...

And last, but not least, I have a giveaway going on over at Goodreads!

 

A Tribute To My Aunt Jean

It's hard to put into words how I feel about Aunt Jean's passing. Of course the natural emotions of loss and nostalgia pure over me, but there's something else. A strange sense of frustration as I try to bring to mind her facial expressions, her voice and most of all her personality. We were robbed of all or most of that years ago as multiple sclerosis ravaged her body. How can we not feel a sense of unfairness? The utter waste, as each year more of Jean disappeared.

I can't help wondering why it is that some are snapped up in an instant. They're here one moment and then their gone. Why others linger, trapped in a body that no longer serves their soul, and we mourn each lost faculty, one heartbreaking moment at a time. 

You won't hear me reciting familiar, age old Psalms about comfort and peace. I won't justify it all with a simple, God works in mysterious ways or she's in a better place. Not because I don't feel those things, I do. As a matter of fact I envision Jean painting, moving her brush across the canvas of the sky, tilting the light between the leaves just right. I feel her warmth in the sun on my face, the squeeze of her hand as I caress my grandchild as he sleeps. 

I don't have any answers. Any more than I understand the suffering around the world and how a loving God could stand by, let alone watch. I'm saddened by the greed and pride that wreak havoc on our world. It's easy to feel despondent, lost upon the sea, as others yell their judgements, calling unbelievers sinners and puff themselves with pride that they have all the answers. 

But I don't need any simple answers. I don't need to understand all the mysteries of why some are born with sight and others never see. I'm content with what I know. Which isn't very much. 

When I think of my Aunt Jean, I think of light. How her life, however stifled it appeared, still brought joy to those around her. She may not have been famous or discovered something new, but her energy of spirit drove all that's right about this world. 

So when I'm sad or frustrated I can think of my Aunt Jean who always made me feel so special, like a little princess in her care. I remember sitting still in a chair as she gently brushed my hair and pinned it up. She whispered in my ear how fun it was to have a girl since my cousins were all boys. Once or twice while attending USU, I popped into their church service and surprised them with a visit. She introduced me proudly, beaming ear to ear. I've never forgotten her artist eyes, always bright and open wide as if she didn't want to miss a moment of the beauty of this world. There was an energy within her, a light that never wained. She gifted that to us, to all of us that knew her. I'm proud to carry a small part within my heart.

Jean's been on my mind for the last few months and I regret not reaching out, there was something I was sensing, a kind of soul connection. I hope someday, when I feel those tugs of spiritual communion, I'll be more inclined to act. I want so badly for her to know how much her life meant to me. 

There is something I can do. I'll bring more joy to those around me, help them see the beauty that she saw. Because when all this earth has passed away—all we really have are our connections to each other—they're what matter in the end. 

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: What Came From The Stars by Gary D. Schmidt

Date Published: September 4, 2012
ISBN: 0547612133
Genre: MG, fantasy
Themes:Loss, loneliness, art, power, friendship, loyalty

About The Book: The Valorim are about to fall to a dark lord when they send a necklace containing their planet across the cosmos, hurtling past a trillion starsall the way into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Mass. Mourning his late mother, Tommy doesn't notice much about the chain he found, but soon he is drawing the twin suns and humming the music of a hanorah. As Tommy absorbs the art and language of the Valorim, their enemies target him. When a creature begins ransacking Plymouth in search of the chain, Tommy learns he must protect his family from villains far worse than he's ever imagined.—Goodreads

First Line: "So the Valorim came to know that their last days were upon them."

Great Quote:   "Let the Art be brought back for the good of the world. If it is in the hand of one who would use it for ill, in that world or this, then it will be upon you to destroy it—though its end means your own life exile."

What Others Are Saying: “Schmidt brings high heroic fantasy and contemporary realism together in this novel.”—Horn Book, starred review.

"Not being a sci fi or fantasy writer, Schmidt gives this his own twang…breaking or ignoring pretty much all the rules of sci fi, but still coming up with something that feels intensley real. Completely successful? I’m not sure about that…but certainly worth the ride."—Library School Journal, Nina Lindsay

Other Blogger Reviews:
The Book Smugglers
Waking Up Braincells
Book Nut

My Analysis:
1. POV switches back and forth, from Tommy's to the Valorim's world. 
2. 293 pages/ includes a glossary and The Testament of Young Waeglim.
3. The Hook: The end of Valorim and the chain leaves that universe.
4. Inciting event: Ch. 2 Tommy puts on the heavy, green, silver chain.
5. Plot and Pace: Plot slowed due to the POV changes and difficult language.
6. Voice: Sophisticated, may be difficult for some middle-graders.

What I Thought: In retrospect I believe I should have waited longer after reading Okay For Now. It is such a different piece of work for Schmidt; the world building, the fantasy, and there are those that aren't so sure it was successful. I'm not prepared to make that claim and plan to read this again in another year. There are many things that I loved and my strong desire to see it succeed kept me reading. The overall message that small things can hold great power is repeated throughout the novel. The universal themes of loss and loneliness are powerful and unite the alternating chapters between worlds.    

About The Author: 

Gary D. Schmidt

Website

Who: Gary D. Schmidt is the author of more than fifteen books for children and young adults, including The Wednesday Wars, a 2008 Newbery Honor Award winner, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, which won a Newbery Honor award and a Michael L. Printz Honor award in 2005. His novel, Trouble, came out in spring 2008, and Okay for Now in 2012—becoming a National Book Award Finalist. In God’s Hands, a picture book co-authored with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, was a runner-up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award. His most recent picture book is The Rose in the Desert: The Story of Martin de Porres.
In addition to multiple “Best Book” lists, his work has been given a Horn Book Honor award and a Blue Ribbon award by the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books. He has also authored or co-authored numerous textbooks, scholarly and academic books (including biographies of Katherine Paterson and Robert McCloskey), articles, and book reviews.

In 1985 he received his Ph.D. in medieval languages and literature from the University of Illinois. He is a professor in the English department at Calvin College and lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan, with his wife and six children. -Hamlin University

Don't miss the other great MMGM reviews, you can find links in my sidebar!

Next Week: Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood