After the Rain [Paperback]

Norma Fox Mazer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1987

At fifteen, Rachel is a worrier. She worries about whether her family understands her, whether her friends like her, and whether she'll get her first kiss before she turns sixteen. And she worries about whether she can handlehaving a real boyfriend if he does come along.

But it takes a dying old man -- her grandfather -- who has never been easy for anyone to handle, to show Rachel she has very special abilities. With love and compassion, she reaches the heart of an old tyrant who has always been unreachable. And in so doing, she comes to a better understanding of her family, her friends, and herself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Mazer's eloquent, reassuring book, Rachel has one last chance to understand her dying grandfather and she learns about herself in the process. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up Step by grudging step, Rachel and her ornery grandfather come together in the last months of his life. In the background are Rachel's fear of social isolation; her irritation with her stolid, sweet parents; and her tentative romance with Lewis Olswanger. When Rachel's best friend brings her birthday party to the old man's apartment, they participate in a joyous celebratory dance, and the contrast of youth to age, life to death is poignantly reassuring. Even surrounding characters are revealed with care, and rich visual imagery adds depth. Close to death, Grandpa Izzy takes Rachel on a fruitless quest to find the concrete handprint Izzy left on a bridge that he helped to build as a young man. After Izzy's death, Rachel finds the print, creating a symbol which binds the book together, past, present, and future. Mazer's uncomplicated prose, mostly dialogue, is effective and readable. In its portrayal of a family coalescing around an old tyrant, and of a young woman achieving adulthood, After the Rain sounds a resonant note. Carolyn Noah, Worcester Public Library, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1St Edition edition (November 2, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380750252
• ISBN-13: 978-0380750252
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

NORMA FOX MAZER is the award-winning author of many novels for young people. She has been honored with the Christopher Award, a Newbery Honor, the Edgar Allen Poe Award, and a National Book Award nomination. She and her husband, novelist Harry Mazer, divide their time between Jamesville, New York, and New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review, February 18, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: After the Rain (Hardcover)

After The Rain was written by Norma Fox Mazer. Izzy, Manny, her "Daddy", Shirley, her "Ma" Helena, her best friend, and Lewis are a few of the characters with whom the main character, Rachel, has relations. The entire book takes place in a rural countryside on the eastern coast of the United States. Rachel's grandfather, Izzy, was dying. He had contracted a terminal disease called mesothelioma. This disease usually attacks the lining of the lung and does not have a cure. Unfortunately, Izzy has the disease both on the lining of and in his lungs. Rachel, after grasping the fact that her grandfather was dying, spent more time with him before his death. She walked with Izzy almost everyday and took care of him as best she could. As Rachel got to know him, she grew to love him immeasurably. When Izzy finally became so weak he has to go to the hospital, Rachel skips school for many weeks to be with him.
I would recommend this book to another student. In fact I think that I would recommend this touching novel to anyone that could read! Norma Fox Mazer has adroitly woven the problems of a young teenage, about my age, into this novel. She created a story that seems so real, but is totally fiction. The events after Izzy died were described so vividly that tears came to my eyes, even though the vocabulary words used to illustrate the scene were only at a fifth to sixth grader's level. Because the story touched me so, I rated After The Rain five stars.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After the Rain, October 24, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: After the Rain (Hardcover)

After the rain was a very good book. i would recommend it to everyone. After the rain is about a 15 year old girl who discovers life, love and herself. i would never think that her grandfather would die because it made me cry and it will make you cry. the first time i saw the book i thought it would be dumb because i hade to read it for school and then i thought this book is the best book i ever read. this book is fantisic and you should read it too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sierra from Richview Middle School, March 10, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: After the Rain (Paperback)

The story starts with rachel a 15 year old girl.She enjoys writing and learning about literature.Her mother and father are described as a moose and a baby blue whale.She also has two older brothers that live and work away from home.Now rachel lives the normal hectic life of a teenager,with low self-esteem and feels unimportant to the world.Then her family is bestowed with the horrifying fact that her grandfather is diagnosed with a cancer diease.Although her grandfather is not the easiest man to love she becomes his reluctant companion.The after school visits to the hospital begin as a chore but soon her grandfather becomes the most important thing in her life.Even more important than her friendship with Helena and her new relationship with Lewis Olswager.Even after all the love and care rachel provides her grandfather passes away.but the memory of him will always live on in her heart forever!This was a hearwarming tell that tought me to treat me what I have right now important because I might not have it later!