Rubber Houses (Hardcover)

by Ellen Yeomans (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up—Kit is a junior in high school when her younger brother is diagnosed with cancer. Despite the difference in their ages, they are kindred spirits who share a love of baseball. When Buddy loses his battle against the disease, Kit is devastated. Suddenly her family no longer functions as a whole. Instead they are like "…islands/too distant to matter." The teen must find a way to own her grief in order to mourn Buddy while at the same time joyfully celebrate the characteristics and quirks that constituted his presence in her life. Written in economical and accessible verse, this novel follows the pattern of the baseball season. Despite major holes in the characterization of Kit and Buddy, this slim work speaks volumes about the grieving process. Yeomans has very precisely selected her words to convey the fear and the grief that Kit feels. As with baseball, even though it seems that Buddy's death has brought everything to a halt, winter does end, and spring training will begin again. This novel will fit nicely alongside Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust (Scholastic, 1997) and Nikki Grimes's Dark Sons (Hyperion, 2005).—Heather M. Campbell, Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Sixteen-year-old Kit's normal, happy life is over when her younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia. A feisty eight-year-old kid who loves baseball, Buddy is Kit's good friend and soul mate, one she is robbed of when he dies. Yeomans weaves the baseball metaphor throughout free-verse poems to trace Buddy's decline to the poignant conclusion, "I'm calling the game." Yet the baseball year--and the book--is only half over. Kit and her parents struggle through postseason bereavement to spring training and develop a way of living without Buddy. The interesting plot structure works surprisingly well with both the topic and the narrative style. It also enhances the realistic portrayal of a family, grief stricken and out of balance, struggling to come back after a losing season. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (January 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031610647X
• ISBN-13: 978-0316106474
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #711,680 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "...not just that Buddy died but that he lived", November 30, 2008

By	Linda Bulger (Avon, Maine) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Reading, June 12, 2007

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful poignant book, February 6, 2007

By	K. L. Going "www.klgoing.com" (New York) - See all my reviews

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.