Customer Reviews

Rubber Houses

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How does a family survive when a child dies? That painful question is the subject of this haunting novel for the teen reader. Teenager Kit and her parents find their world in tatters when nine-year-old Buddy is diagnosed with cancer and dies. Kit's grief isolates her from her best friend, her school work, and especially from her parents who are following their own painful, isolated courses through the devastating loss.

Rubber Houses is written in free verse, in Kit's first person voice. The format doesn't support detailed character or plot development, but it has other rewards: its spare outlines invite the reader to interpret the details. Why does Kit dress in clothing her mother used to hate? How does her preoccupation with road maps and trip routes make her feel closer to Buddy? Why does she slip away from home and return to the hospital room where Buddy died, months later? These events are largely left to the reader to decipher, and I would expect them to be well within the experience and grasp of a mid-teen reader.

Reflecting the fact that Buddy and Kit were baseball-mad, author Ellen Yeomans has based the book's structure on the baseball year. Buddy is diagnosed during the season warm-up, dies during the regular season. Kit is numb with grief during Postseason. Hot Stove is the off-season when trades are made and things are in turmoil. Spring Training brings the hard work, the starting over. Many of the poems have baseball-themed names: Opening Day, Roster Change, Triple A, Curve Ball. The recurring baseball metaphor adds much to the book for a baseball fan.

This is at least a two-hanky book but the story ends on a note of hope, strength and recovery. The reader of any age is invited to fill in the outlines of Kit's loss and re-entry. A very rewarding book, highly recommended.

Linda Bulger, 2008

This is a book that will stick with you long after you've read it. I recommend it both for the emotional journey and for the sparse beauty of the poetry. To say it's a tear jerker is true, but somehow that fails to capture the way the story brings events to life and makes you feel as if you're a part of them. It's a powerful read. People of almost any age will find plenty of heart in these pages.

RUBBER HOUSES is a moving free-verse novel about Kit's experiences loving her younger brother, losing him to cancer, and moving on but never forgetting.

Kit and Buddy, despite their age gap, are very close, and Kit is devastated when he becomes sick and she finally, but not unexpectedly, loses her younger brother. She shuts down for awhile after Buddy's death, but slowly, she starts to pick up the pieces of her life and continue to live it, even without Buddy by her side, even with the pain of loss that, even when it's not fresh, is never gone.

This is an emotional, well-written novel about love, loss, and moving on despite it all. Kit is a realistic, well-developed character, but often she is the only one; the other characters seem less than real much of the time. Despite this, RUBBER HOUSES is worth reading. Whether readers can relate to Kit's situation or not, all will feel her pain at losing her brother in this painfully honest story.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

Father, mother, sister, brother. A happy family - until the youngest, the boy, is diagnosed with cancer. Told in verse from the teenage daughter's point of view, Rubber Houses is a tearjerker of a story, written simply and shared gently.

Even though Kit is eight years older than Buddy, the two are as thick as thieves. My sister and I are eleven years apart, but we were incredibly close growing up. I am the younger of the two, so reading this story made me consider how it must have been to be in her shoes, dealing with the drama of high school while your sibling was barely in elementary school.

If you like Rubber Houses, I also recommend Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick and With You and Without You by Ann M. Martin.

Written in Free-Verse, Ellen Yeomans tells the story of a teenage girl, Kit, who experiences pain, heartache, growth, and hope. Kit starts out just like any normal teenager: active, fun, loving life, and dreaming to explore the world. Kit is like any normal teenager... until.... her brother, Buddy, becomes ill and dies without warning. With Buddy's untimely leave, Kit and her family must find the will and strength to carry on. But how?

Kit is forced to grow up in many ways that most teenagers never have to, adults at that matter too. Instead of being a "normal" teenager, Kit is driving to the hospital, staying at a Ronald McDonald home out of state, and in a way taking care of her parents while not taking care of herself.

I personally felt very connected to this novel - loosing a mother to cancer a few years ago I believed everything Kit went through, as I went through the same emotions. The numbness, the anger, the confusion, and of course the pain. Even the hope that comes with time, that life does goes on and that you can be happy again.

The change in Kit occurs one "un-normal" day in the shower - she notices the grout peeling and starts to peel the remaining away. I personally saw this as a representation of Kit's old self (before Buddy's death) being peeled away and then later replaced by a new self (new grout).

Yeomans does an amazing job translating the pain and grief anyone feels when they loose a loved one, in particular a close family member. A unique aspect to this YA Verse Novel is Yeomans' way of bringing in Baseball and Math into the Novel and Kit's and Buddy's relationship. This is most notably seen in the way Yeomans "chapters" her novel by Baseball year and seasons. This is a perfect book for anyone looking for understanding and even an outlet. You will be surprised how affecting and moving such a innocent seeming novel appears to be.

Ellen Yeomans captures a family's grief with heartbreaking perfection in this unique work. I was sobbing by page 29 and the tears didn't let up much after that. Buddy is just so damn loveable, and the family is so blindsided by his tragic death. I think Yeomans does a great job of drawing each character: the control-freak Mom, the unavailable Dad, the adoring older sister and adorable, captivating little brother Buddy. It's impressive that even in spare free verse, the author nails every emotion, every nuance, every tragic blow to the heart with perfectly-chosen words. The baseball metaphors are spot-on.

This is a beautiful story of sibling love, tragedy, and recovery. I will recommend it highly to everyone I know.

Reviewed by Nicole LeBoeuf (age 16) for Reader Views (6/07)

"Rubber Houses," by Ellen Yeomans, is a heart-melting story told in a unique and captivating way. The novel is about a teenage girl dealing with the loss of her younger brother, and her personal battle with grief. From her home in New York, Yeomans wrote two picture books titled "Jubilee" and "Lost and Found: Remembering the Sister." As this is her first novel, she has pulled out all the tricks to make it a spectacular beginning.

The novel is a tale that any teenager, or anyone that has suffered a loss, can relate to. Through the use of free-verse, her story is given to us in short individual doses which sing with meaning, both to the tale as a whole, and as a separate entity. You could open to any page of the novel, pick a poem, and delight in it without reading anything else. Reading the novel as a whole, you discover the life of Kit, a teenage girl who is very close to her younger brother, Buddy. It is not long before Buddy is stricken with cancer and passes from her life. Kit is left to deal with her grief, and the chaos her emotions wreak inside her, seemingly on her own. The novel has a baseball theme, as it was his favorite sport. Each section is given a baseball term, like "Spring Training," creatively symbolizing Kit's love for Buddy, as well as showing Kit's step of recovery. Her psychological movements are tracked and explored, and her final courageous movement toward recovering is inspiring. It is possible to recover from losing someone you love so dearly.

When I picked up the book, I was not expecting what I discovered hidden underneath its seemingly innocent cover. It is not often that I am emotionally affected by the printed word, but Yeoman's words were able to reach a part of me that understood every word she wrote so clearly it was as though they were chosen from my own mind. I found myself near tears one moment and underneath a veil of goose bumps the next.

"Rubber Houses" is a novel anyone can enjoy as well as learn from. If you have recently lost someone beloved, this inspiring tale can help you through the worst of times.

Book Received at No Charge

Ellen Yeomans' RUBBER HOUSES is presented in lyrical verse: the format may put off readers who want a straight fiction read, but the story will prove moving to any who don't mind the verse structure, telling of teen Kit and her younger brother and a family changed by tragedy. A good pick for any teen leisure reading library.

The verse is easy to follow and yet so full of meaning and emotion, it will take your breath away, and yes, make you cry a time or two. But don't the most memorable books do that? Ellen Yeomans is a masterful storyteller as well as a poet. There's not much else to say except, I loved this book!

While written in verse, this book is a novel and reads like one. The story is told simply and beautifully. The verse is natural and emotion flows through it without being overdone. It is of course a "must read" for anyone who has lost a family member or equally for anyone on a painful journey of their own. A beautiful and moving work from start to finish.