This is an endearing story about loss, love and recovery. Aubrey is eleven and heartbroken at the deaths of her dad and sister in a car accident. Left alone because her mum, also bereft leaves home one day and doesn’t return, Aubrey believes she can cope by herself. Thankfully her gran soon turns up to tell her otherwise! Aubrey finds herself moving in with gran, making new friends with the neighbour’s daughter and finding support from staff at her new school. Aubrey starts writing letters to her sister and dad and slowly through the firm yet calm and patient love from her gran, Aubrey starts to heal.
I adore this story and sigh contentedly whenever I think of it. It is gentle and loving in it’s telling and the characters are really easy to relate to. Everyone needs a gran like Aubrey’s, someone who knows what to say, when to say it and when ultimately to put their foot down! Parts made me cry because the way the author describes Aubrey’s ache for her sister reminded me of mine, thankfully alive but far, far away in another country and terribly missed. But mostly this story made me smile, particularly at Gran’s handling of each situation as it arose! It’s earned a place in my heart as a beautiful book to treasure forever. Girls from the age of 9 upwards will enjoy this story but it’s also lovely enough that it needs read by adults everywhere.
Cat
