Customer Reviews

Sky Memories

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This is a tough book to review. It's touching, heart-warming, heart-wrenching, simple, complex, and I could go on. The funny thing about it is that it is only 70-something pages long and I picked it up randomly in the library and couldn't put it down. Of course, as the author intends, the book could be used to help prepare a child for the loss of a parent due to an illness. But it does something else, too. It helps the common person relate to an issue that may not happen to them at all, but to their neighbor, or their mailman, or their child's best friend. It's useful, yes, but it's beautiful, too. This one should be widely read.

Sky Memories is a touching story about Emily and the impending death of her mother from cancer. Together, the two collect scenes from the sky to remember and cherish, as the unthinkable event creeps closer. Impossible to put down, this slim volume speaks to young people and adults alike, who have had to confront such a loss and carry on. Beautifully illustrated with sensitive watercolors by Wendell Minor, this is a book to be cherished and shared. A reading specialist in Pa.

Pat Brisson's Sky Memories is a poignant and brilliantly crafted story told with great sensitivity and insight.

It's extremely difficult to find WELL WRITTEN HEALING grief bibliotherapy for this age group. Thank goodness for authors like Pat Brisson. She's done something incredible with Sky Memories for kids who are coping with a great loss. All of the difficult emotions and hard questions are tackled in this story. Emily goes through anger, sadness, denial, and acceptance.

Emily asks some very honest questions to her mother like, 'Are you going to die? Are you afraid of dying? Why doesn't God answer my prayers?' Pat Brisson doesn't try to make the hard parts "pretty" for your reading pleasure. I thank her for that. And I'll admit, even as a counselor it's hard to read this story because I know kids go through this.

What really blessed me about this story is when Emily gets angry after her mother's death, "There were bottles of pills on the nightstand. I carefully lined them up in a perfectly straight row along the edge of the table. I flicked the first one off the edge. It fell to the floor with a familiar rattle and thud. I flicked the next one harder and it fell harder from the table. The next one I batted with my hand and it flew halfway across the room. The last three I gathered up and threw with all my might at the far wall. The plastic containers shattered and pills flew all over the room. I burst into tears." Wow. The message: Kids, you get to be angry about your loss! Everyone's anger is going to look different. Throwing the pills across the room didn't seem like an unhealthy way to cope. I sort of went...YES, throw those awful pills, Emily!

Don't try and look for or force closure when you read this book. Grief doesn't work that way. There is a beautiful acceptance and understanding that seems to rise from every page to the very last word. Highly recommend this one.