by Darlene Ryan
Orca Book Publishers, 2009
ISBN 978-1-55143-937-2
$12.95 212 pp, ages 12+
www.orcabook.com
Suicide. What is it like to be the ones left behind? D’Arcy is angry and confused. She tries to believe her father’s drowning was an accident. She struggles both to accept and live with his sad choice and to figure out what it means for her and her mother. In the process, she has to renegotiate relationships with her friends, her teachers, her half-sister, and her mother. Darlene Ryan treats this sensitive topic with care and understanding. She creates a believable pathway for D’Arcy from anger and despair toward hope and reconciliation. Readers will readily identify with D’Arcy’s emotional turmoil and fears about what other kids will say about her father and why he ended his own life. The imaginative experience of the novel will help them appreciate the meaning of suicide and the ways one can cope with it.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s November 2009 issue.