Summerlost by Ally Condie

"It is possible to be different and still belong to your family. For them to love you like crazy."

I grew up on books like A Taste of Blackberries and Bridge to Terabithia where a best friend of the protagonist dies near the end. I feel that sometimes books like that end where they should begin because they don't spend much time dealing with how a child copes with loss.

Enter Summerlost by Ally Condie. Condie is the author of the best-selling Matched trilogy. Summerlost is the story of a summer that Cedar spends with her mother and brother in a new home a year after they lost their father and another brother in a car accident. Another important topic that this book talks about is what it is like to have a sibling with special needs. It captures the love and the frustration and the guilt.

Now that I've made it sound like a book to read just to learn a lesson, it also has a really great story with great characters. I recommend it to any middle grade reader.
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Summerlost
By Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Year: 2016
Ages: Middle Grade Books

You can find this book on Amazon (affiliate link), at an independent bookstore, or at your local library.

Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley

This book was one of our random library picks and we ended up enjoying it. On the surface it's a story of a boy (who happens to be a beaver) who builds boats, goes to the beach with his mother, and then sends the boats out into the ocean with a note for his papa. But, spoiler alert, the boats never make it to Papa. And it's really his mama who has been retrieving the boats each night and treasuring them.

This book subtly handles the issues of death and grief. I was impressed that both of my girls picked up on what was really going on in the story and they talked with me about the fact that some people die. Though the Papa in this book is a reference to a father, my own father was known as Papa by his grandchildren. He died when my oldest was only one year old. So we talked about their Papa after reading this book.

If you need to talk about grief and death with your children, this book is a good way to start a difficult conversation. Buckley the beaver is sad that Papa is gone, but he has his mama and is filled with love and appreciation for her. There is sadness, but there is also love in this book.

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Boats for Papa
By Jessixa Bagley
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Year: 2015
Info: full color illustrations
Ages: picture books, young children
Themes: grief, mother and child, single parents, beach, boats
Source: our public library