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Summary
Summary
A powerful new novel from the award-winning author of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.
Isabel's mother died peacefully. At least that's what Isabel likes to think since no one will talk about the truth. But the truth has a way of revealing itself at night. Ta`Ta sleeps curled up on the floor right where Mama's body was found. Olivia wets her bed and wakes repeatedly from nightmares, and Frank starts carving his anger into his bedroom wall. It's up to Isabel to help her family get beyond the pain and loss--to be the keeper of the night. But who will be there for Isabel and helpher through to the other side?
Set on the lush island of Guam, Kimberly Willis Holt has written a painfully beautiful story about a young woman's struggle to protect her family after suicide hits home.
Author Notes
Kimberly Willis Holt was born in Pensacola, Florida September 9, 1960, but spent most of her childhood in Forest Hill, Louisiana.
Kimberly is a children's writer, most famous for writing When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 1999.
She has also won, or been shortlisted, for a number of prestigious awards: Mister and Me, My Louisiana Sky, Dancing in Cadillac Light, Keeper of the Night, Waiting for Gregory, Part of Me, Skinny Brown Dog, Piper Reed Navy Brat, Piper Reed the Great Gypsy, and Piper Reed Gets a Job.
Kimberly lives in Amarillo, Texas.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Since her mother's suicide, 13-year-old Isabel Moreno cleans up after her 7-year-old sister and watches and worries about her 12-year-old brother, who spends his nights carving "I hate you" on his bedroom wall. Their fisherman father spends long hours on his boat and has no time for his family. Now, Isabel feels as if she can't remember her mother. No one at her Catholic school or in her small Guam village mentions her name except her Aunt Bernadette, who tries to interest her niece in entering the fiesta-queen contest that her mother won two years in a row. Her brother's collapse, on the day of the fiesta, finally drives the family to get the help they need to work their way out of their grief. Isabel, an aspiring writer, tells her story in short chapters, as if they were entries in a journal. She comes through as a thoroughly believable eighth grader, still in need of support from friends and family, but becoming aware of her distinctive interests and talents as well. A broad range of friends and family is equally believable and sympathetically portrayed. Readers are drawn into Isabel's world and her determination to keep on going in the face of her overwhelming loss and responsibilities. They will welcome the way the adults in her world finally intervene, allowing her to return to middle-school concerns. A beautifully written description of sorrow and recovery that should appeal to a wide audience.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Holt's (My Louisiana Sky; When Zachery Came to Town) evocative novel set in Guam traces the difficult months following the suicide of native girl Isabel's mother. Brief (half- to three-page) chapters capture the heroine's moods and memories as she takes on added responsibilities at home and struggles to reclaim a sense of normalcy. Isabel's narrative poetically conveys her observations about the changes in each of her family members since the tragedy. Her younger sister, Olivia, now has nightmares and wets the bed; her father, always a man of few words, becomes even more silent and distant than before ("He's the magic man, reinventing the disappearing act"). Isabel is most deeply affected by the alterations in her brother's behavior. Frank, who once "knew every knock-knock joke by heart," becomes "a stranger in the house," as he grows increasingly removed and self-destructive. Holt smoothly juxtaposes here-and-now segments with haunting recollections of Isabel's "sad and beautiful" mother, whose image starts to fade in the narrator's mind over time. The author works magic, recreating the sights, sounds and smells of Guam and encapsulating the essence of her characters through very few words. Readers drawn into Isabel's sadness will also share her surge of hope as she and family members begin the process of healing. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Excerpts
Excerpts
No-Legend Death "Your mother would have been proud," says Auntie Bernadette, "if she knew you could make the golai hagun sune. Why don't you make it for her first anniversary rosary?" Six months ago no one worried about what would make my mother proud. "Erlinda will be lucky to have a church burial," Auntie Minerva had told my father then. Not long ago, people who committed suicide didn't get a rosary or a funeral blessed by the church. But Auntie Minerva was wrong. No one questioned giving my mother a proper burial. No one questioned or said anything about the way she died. At least not around us. Every night of the nine-day rosary my family wore the same thing--our best clothes and shoes and a coat of shame. --from Keeper of the Night Excerpted from Keeper of the Night by Kimberly Willis Holt All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.