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roseleaf24's review
3.0
This book is early YA, when there's an understanding that YA is it's own thing, but not a separate award yet. It has an after-school special feeling to it, and felt a little clunky to me. I think there are better YA books from this era. This was a good story, though. Touching, about a girl losing her grandfather and the development of their relationship.
ava3's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
glowing_embers16's review
5.0
This is a beautiful and moving story about a fifteen-year-old girl named Rachel who gets to know her difficult and rather gruff grandfather as he is slowly dying. Through her interaction with him, Rachel is able to, in a way, break her grandfather's wall, gets to know him a little bit more, and learns to love him.
Not only is the story so touching, Mazer's writing is breathtaking. It's very simple, yet paints such a vivid picture of Rachel's life and world. It's effortless and smooth and sucks you right into the story.
The characters are wonderful and unforgettable, especially the grandfather, Izzy. There are plenty of moments that put a smile on your face and others that tenderly tug at your heart. This book is definitely worthy of its Newbery Honor award, and I highly recommend it to all readers.
Not only is the story so touching, Mazer's writing is breathtaking. It's very simple, yet paints such a vivid picture of Rachel's life and world. It's effortless and smooth and sucks you right into the story.
The characters are wonderful and unforgettable, especially the grandfather, Izzy. There are plenty of moments that put a smile on your face and others that tenderly tug at your heart. This book is definitely worthy of its Newbery Honor award, and I highly recommend it to all readers.
k_lee_reads_it's review
4.0
This is a book about family relationships. Nothing unusual happens. Just normal life stuff, and death stuff. But somehow it is really nice. Life experience affirming.
isfjwill's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book means a lot to me since it was given to me by an old family friend. It carrie’s a lot of meaning, & I found myself relating to the main character a lot in moments. It’s a great depiction of grief, struggle, & family that I really did have the pleasure of reading. The writing is easy to follow which I appreciated as well. An amazing piece for those who enjoy sad books in general.
lpm100's review
2.0
A parent's Book Review
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.
ashwise360's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
queerbooklover03's review
5.0
This, this book was amazing and sad. It is now one of my favorite books ever. The way that Ms Mazer captured the real,True emotions of a teenager was indescribable in a good way. If you like this I suggest reading A Begonia for Miss Applebaum by Paul Zindel. Just remember to bring the tissues.
sjswenson22's review
4.0
This book made me extremely happy. It was a normal relateable plotline, with normal, relateable characters, in a normal relateable town. Usually, this would infuriate me to no end, but curiously, I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were perfectly relateable. The relationships and the ending of the story were very nice and easy, not to sugary sweet like some stories like this tend to be.
Good book overall.
Good book overall.
bdietrich's review
Read for Lit for the Classroom
Not too bad. Although Izzy did take too long to die.
Not too bad. Although Izzy did take too long to die.