A Sister Who Lives in Everyone's Heart -- Except Me!
Title: My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece
Author: Annabel Pitcher
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for The Young Readers
Publication Date: Aug 14th 2012
Page Number: 225 pages
Blurb:
Ten-year-old Jamie hasn't cried since it happened. He knows he should have - Jasmine cried, Mum cried, Dad still cries. Roger didn't, but then he is just a cat and didn't know Rose that well, really.
Everyone kept saying it would get better with time, but that's just one of those lies that grown-ups tell in awkward situations. Five years on, it's worse than ever: Dad drinks, Mum's gone and Jamie's left with questions that he must answer for himself.
This is his story, an unflinchingly real yet heart-warming account of a young boy's struggle to make sense of the loss that tore his family apart.
What I Thought:
This book is so sad. How a family could be broken because of the seems-like-forever grieving of their dead child. They ignored Jamie, and also Jasmine, just because the father can't accepted his dead little girl. The worst of all was the mother. I have no idea, what kind of mother who dare to abandoned her children for an affair. Because she was sick of her former spouse. Because they never stopped blaming each other for Rose's death. I hate when other children felt invincible because of the gone of one child. I hate this kind of parents which focus on the lost, not what left.
But the great things of this book is it teach about tolerance, especially for people who has different kind of faith. I know (from some news and convos with my abroad Muslim friends) that it's not easy become a Muslim in the place that still have bad perspective to Muslim people. I think I understand about how Sunya wanted to be a "normal". This book is wonderful. I can say, I adore this book so much! Recommended for those who open minded, about everything.
Opening Lines:
My sister Rose lives on the mantelpiece. Well, some of her does. Three of her fingers, her right elbow and her kneecap are buried in a graveyard in London.