Review by Babs Simpson 11th June 09
This was one of the R&J shortlisted Galaxy 2009
It is set between New York and New England, takes place during the month of Decembe (who'd have guessed!)and is about a middle class family, Wilson & Ruth Carter and their 11yr old daughter, Isabelle.
The main storyline concerns Isabelle's refusal to speak for the last nine or so months and the obvious effect this has on her parents. The child is threatened with expulsion from her school because she won't join in lessons or communicate with the other pupils and her mother and father are of course, under a tremendous strain, feeling that it must be their fault that their child has apparently chosen a life of silence.
Isabelle relises she has got herself in a difficult situation - she wants to talk again but with each passing day the barrier becomes higher. The actual cause of her descent into silence was finding the body of a trapped squirrel that had so desperately fought for its freedom that its claws were ripped out. The sadness filled her young mind, blocking out everything else.
Her parents' marriage suffers but eventually, without the aid of psychiatrists or any outside help, Isabelle begins to talk and everyone lives ever after.
I don't know if I'd recommend this book. It is well written and you get to know all the characters very well. The contrast between New York and the countryside of New England is nicely drawn but at the end I did find myself wondering why I'd bothered........
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