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Surprise Island

The Boxcar Children

Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 1949.

Mr. Alden has promised his grandchildren a special surprise for their summer vacation. He tells them that, years ago, his father bought a small island because he kept horses and wanted a quiet place for them.  The island has only one little yellow house, a barn, and a fisherman’s hut where Captain Daniel lives.  Captain Daniel operates the motorboat that can take people to the island.  Mr. Alden plans to take his grandchildren to the island to look over the house, and if they like, they can spend the summer there.  The children think that it sounds like fun.

When they get to the island, the children decide that they want to stay in the barn instead of the house.  Captain Daniel also tells them that he has a young man staying with him, a friend who hasn’t been feeling well.  The Aldens’ old friend, Dr. Moore, has come to see the island with them, so he looks in on the young man.  It turns out that the young man was in an accident and had lost his memory for a time, although he has been gaining it back.  He says that he used to live with an uncle but that he didn’t want to go home again until he was sure that he was completely well.  He is going by the name of “Joe”, which is short for his middle name, Joseph.  Captain Daniel says that he’s known the young man all his life, and Dr. Moore also seems to know him, but Joe doesn’t seem to want to talk about himself to Mr. Alden.

The kids enjoy setting up housekeeping in the barn.  It reminds them of when they used to live in an old boxcar.  They use old boxes for furniture, dig for clams, and eat vegetables from the garden that Joe and Captain Daniel have tended for them.  Their grandfather allows the children to stay on the island in Captain Daniel’s charge, but they are mostly allowed to take care of themselves.  Joe sometimes brings them supplies that they ask for from the mainland.  (One of the themes of the Boxcar Children Series is self-sufficiency.  At one point, Jessie comments about how much better things seem “when we have to work to get it.”)  For fun, they go swimming, and Joe spends time with them, telling them about different types of seaweed.  They are surprised at how knowledgeable Joe is.

Henry gets the idea that they can set up a kind of museum of interesting things that they find on the island, like samples of different types of seaweed, shells, flowers, pictures of birds that they’ve seen, etc.  The other children think that it sounds like fun, and they begin thinking about the different types of things that they can collect.While they’re searching for things to collect and add to their museum, the children find a cave and an old arrowhead and ax-head.  They are authentic Indian (Native American) relics!  When they show Joe what they’ve found, he gets very excited, especially when they tell him that they saw a pile of clam shells, too.  Joe explains to the children how Native Americans used to use shells as money called wampum.  He thinks that what they saw was wampum, which the people who used to live there might have made after drying the clams to eat later.  Joe explains to the kids some of the process they would have used to turn the shells into wampum.  He’s eager to go to the cave and look for more Native American artifacts with them, but he urges them not to say anything to anyone else about it because other treasure hunters will probably show up if they do.  The children agree to keep their find a secret until their grandfather returns.

When they return to the cave with Joe, they make an even more incredible find: a human skeleton with an arrowhead inside.  It looks like they’ve found the bones of someone killed by an arrow!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

As with some other vintage children’s mystery series, the early books in the series were more adventure than mystery.  The most mysterious part of this book concerns the real identity of the young man they call “Joe.”  The truth begins to come out when a strange man who calls himself Browning comes to the island in search of a young man who disappeared the year before while doing some exploring for him.  The young man he’s looking for worked for a museum.

This is the book where Violet first learns to play the violin.  This is a character trait that stays with her for the rest of the series.

Posted on by TracyC

Coconut Kind of Day

Coconut Kind of Day: Island Poems by Lynn Joseph, illustrated by Sandra Speidel, 1990.

The author’s note in the back of the book explains that the author was originally from Trinidad and that she wrote this book of poems about some of the things that remembers from growing up there.  She also explains some of the terms used in the poems that people who aren’t familiar with Trinidad might not know:

Palet man – Ice-cream man who sells ice cream on sticks, like popsicles (I knew this one because I’m used to the Spanish word “paletero” from growing up in Arizona.)

Soursop – A type of fruit often used as an ice cream flavor

Pullin’ seine – When the fishermen start pulling in their nets, and other people help.

Jumbi man – A bogey man.  It’s popular for people to dress in a Jumbi costume at Carnival time.

Sorrel – A plant used in making a drink around Christmas

The poems are mostly about small, everyday things, like going to school or to the market or how the children play together or get ice cream from the palet man.

There is one poem where the girls want to play cricket with the boys, but the boys won’t let them, and they decide that when they’re older, they’ll have a cricket team of their own.

The pictures are beautiful, done in an impressionistic style.

Posted on by TracyC

The Ship That Never Was

ShipThatNeverWasThe Ship That Never Was by Mickey Spillane, 1982.

Larry Damar and Josh Toomey are sailing in a boat off the coast of Peolle Island in the Caribbean when they rescue an old man from what seems to be a skiff. But, as soon as they get him aboard their own boat, they realize that what they thought was a skiff is actually more of a long boat, and it looks old. Very old.

They take the old man, who is suffering from exhaustion, to their fathers. While the old man rests, they inspect the boat and confirm that it is an antique. Oddly, from the condition of the wood, they believe that it has been resting in water for some years, but not salt water. It’s the kind of longboat that would have been carried aboard larger naval ships from a couple hundred years earlier. The name on the side of the boat, HMS Tiger, is familiar, but they heard that it was lost at sea ages ago. The old man is also carrying what appears to be some very old documents, but they are unable to read them, and when the old man speaks, they’re not quite sure what language he’s speaking.

They send a message to Sir Harry Arnold at the antiquities department of the British Naval Archives about the boat and the old man. When he arrives, he confirms that the longboat came from the HMS Tiger, a three-masted ship built in England in 1791. The Tiger was considered a jinxed ship because of everything that went wrong during its construction and its maiden voyage. Because of that, no one wanted to sail on it again or even work on the ship to dismantle it. So, the builder decided to send the boat on one last voyage by itself. He and his men loaded up the ship with supplies as if it had a crew aboard and then set it adrift, watching it sail off majestically, without a crew. Everyone had assumed that it would have eventually sunk, damaged by the weather, but apparently, it survived for longer than anyone had suspected.

Since no one can understand his language, the old man, who calls himself Vali, draws pictures to explain to them where he came from. Vali indicates which island he came from, and according to his other drawings, he lived there with many other people until many of them were killed in some kind of storm. He also draws a picture of a young girl with a crown on her head. Then, Larry’s dad, Vincent, recognizes the seal on a signet ring that Vali shows them. Vincent has read about the history of the country of Grandau (fictional country), and he recognizes its royal seal.

About 200 years before, Grandau was overrun by a neighboring country. Members of the royal family of Grandau escaped the invasion along with some loyal servants and tried to flee across the Channel to England to seek sanctuary. However, they were only in an old fishing boat, and it was thought that it sunk in a storm before they reached England because such a small craft would be unlikely to have survived. Grandau has not been a happy country since then. Over the years, they have been ruled by a series of dictatorships, and it has been in an almost constant state of unrest.

Now, the presence of the longboat from the HMS Tiger presents a much more intriguing theory of what happened to King Tynere of Grandau and his people. By an unbelievable coincidence (your suspension of disbelief is required for this story), the royal family’s attempted escape to England happened around the same time that the HMS Tiger was sent off alone and fully equipped for its final voyage. It now seems that the desperate people on the fishing boat were saved by encountering this grand, unmanned ship that no one else wanted, that everyone feared was jinxed. Grandau was not a seafaring nation, so the people were probably unable to actually sail the ship, simply letting it drift until they found land. Eventually, they arrived at an island in the Caribbean, and their descendants have been living there ever since in anonymity, until the disaster that prompted Vali to risk venturing out for help.

Unfortunately, their attempts to determine what language Vali was speaking and where he came from have also come to the attention of the wrong people. The government currently in power in Grandau has been working hard to stamp out the history and culture of the country in order to tighten its hold on the people, although their hold has never been more than tenuous, just like all the other dictatorships since Grandau’s royal family fled. Now that word has reached them that members of the royal family that the people of Grandau mourn may actually still be alive, they are determined to eliminate them before they can return to their ancestral home.

The author of this book, Mickey Spillane, is best known for his Mike Hammer series of hard-boiled mysteries for adults, and some of his hard-boiled style shows in this adventure book for children. This book is also part of a short series, although I don’t have the first book, The Day the Sea Rolled Back. In that book, Larry and Josh are helping their fathers hunt for sunken treasure, but their efforts are being sabotaged by a pair of treasure-hunting brothers.

Posted on by TracyC

Mystery on Taboga Island

TabogaIslandMystery on Taboga Island by Patricia Maloney Markun, 1995.

Amy is excited to be spending the summer with her aunt on Taboga Island, off the coast of Panama, near the Panama Canal.  Aunt Rhoda is a curator for an art museum, and she is writing a series of art lectures.  In particular, she has an interest in Paul Gauguin, who painted in Panama in the late 1800s.  She has invited Amy to join her for the summer not only so that she can visit another country but because of their mutual interest in art.  Amy loves drawing and painting and wants to be an artist someday.

The one drawback of going is that Amy is worried that she will be lonely over the summer.  She doesn’t know whether there will be any kids her age close by or if she would be able to talk to them if there are because she doesn’t speak Spanish.  Fortunately, soon after they arrive on Taboga, Amy meets Zoe.  Zoe is from California but she comes to visit her relatives on Taboga every year.  She introduces Amy to her cousin, Juan, as well.  The three of them become friends, and Zoe and Juan even share their special, secret hiding place with Amy: a old lookout point on an old, abandoned pier left from World War II that can only be reached by walking on a narrow beam over the water.

TabogaIslandPicThey also introduce Amy to Madame Odelle, who people call The Bird Woman because of all the birds she keeps around her house.  She is a widow who lives alone and hardly ever sees people, but she invites the children in and when she learns that Amy is interested in art, she shows them a special painting that her family has had for generations.  Madame says that her grandfather bought the painting years ago from a traveling Frenchman who was in need of money.  Amy thinks that it looks like one of Paul Gauguin’s paintings, and she knows that some of his work is unaccounted for.  However, the initials on the painting are PGO.  What could the ‘O’ stand for?

Then, the painting is suddenly stolen, and there’s no shortage of suspects.  A strange woman named Phoebe Quincy has been lurking around Madame’s house and asking questions about her.  There’s also Donald S. Deffenbach, a birdwatcher who doesn’t seem to know much about birds, and Captain Billy, an Australian who owns a sailboat that he sails himself.  Dr. Denis Dobson, who is also a Gauguin expert, also happens to be staying at the resort on the island.  He is visiting places where Gauguin painted while writing a book about him.  Could he be the thief?

I like this book for the pieces of history about Panama and Paul Gauguin, which are important in solving the mystery and understanding the origin of Madame’s mysterious painting.  One of the things I remembered most about reading this book as a child, though, was when Amy and her aunt were eating at the little restaurant on the island and her aunt urged her to try a Panamanian dish so that she could get used to trying new foods when she travels.  Amy tries a tamale for breakfast and loves it, wishing that she had been brave enough to try it earlier since she and her aunt are now planning to do more of their own cooking.  I was familiar with tamales as a kid, but not for breakfast, although I like the idea.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Make Way for Ducklings

MakeWay

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, 1941.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are looking for a new home where they can raise their babies.  After trying several places, they finally find a place that seems right on an island in the Charles River, not far from the Public Garden where people fed them peanuts.

MakeWayPic1

Then, one day, Mr. Mallard decides to take a trip to explore the river, leaving Mrs. Mallard and their ducklings on the island.  The two of them agree to meet again with their ducklings in the Public Garden in a week.  However, the journey from the river to the garden is perilous.  Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings need the help of some friendly policemen to make it safely through the city!

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The classic children’s picture book is cute and gentle with a happy ending for the Mallard family. This book is a Caldecott Medal winner and the Official State Children’s Book of Massachusetts.

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The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

Posted on by TracyC

The Ghosts of Cougar Island

cougarislandThe Ghosts of Cougar Island by Peggy Parish, 1986.

This book picks up soon after the previous book in the series ends.

The summer is almost over, and soon, the Roberts children will have to leave Pirate Island.  Their grandfather tells them the story of nearby Cougar Island.  The members of the Cougar family are all deceased, but the last member of the family said that anyone who trespassed on the island would be haunted by the ghosts of the Cougar family who are buried on the island.  Although no one lives there now, some people have seen lights out on the island at midnight.  The children’s grandfather even tried to go there once when he was young but turned back when he heard terrible moans.  Liza, Bill, and Jed decide that they can’t possibly go home without trying to investigate this haunted island!

Strange things are happening on Pirate Island, too.  Someone has been stealing food from Hermit Dan, but someone has also weeded his garden.  On the one hand, he appreciates the help, but he can’t understand the thefts.

The children’s grandfather borrows a canoe for them, and the three of them take a trip out to the island.  Sure enough, they encounter the terrible moans and a horrifying sound like the rattle of bones.  Hermit Dan later offers them an explanation that helps set them at ease, but he can’t explain every mystery.  Another visit to the island answers some of the children’s questions and leaves them with others, and a terrifying time in the old abandoned Cougar mansion convinces them of one thing: There is still someone on Cougar Island who shouldn’t be there. Someone who ate the lunch the children left behind earlier. Someone who lights candles at night in the old abandoned Cougar mansion. Someone who may even be responsible for the thefts on Pirate Island.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Pirate Island Adventure

pirateislandPirate Island Adventure by Peggy Parish, 1975.

The Roberts kids must solve another family treasure hunt! This time, they are staying with their grandparents at the family’s vacation home on Pirate Island. It has been many years since the family has been able to go there during the summer. For years, they rented the house out to a couple who lived there most of the time, and the grandparents could only go there when the couple left to visit relatives at Christmas. Now, the house is vacant again, and the grandparents have decided to take the Liza, Bill, and Jed there for the summer.

The last time that their grandfather spent the summer there as a child, his older brother decided to take something from every member of the family and make a treasure hunt just like the old family treasure hunt that the kids solved in Key to the Treasure. Just like that treasure hunt, other circumstances arose that kept the treasure hunt from being solved, so no one ever got back what grandfather’s brother hid. The only clue they have to the treasure now is a picture that grandfather’s brother drew. Since the children were able to solve the last treasure hunt, their grandfather is hopeful that they will be able to solve this one, too.

Unlike other treasure hunts that the Roberts kids solve, this treasure hunt does not involve codes and word games.  The clues are given in the form of drawings, most of which (unfortunately) are not shown to the readers.  The readers wouldn’t have a chance to solve the puzzles anyway because the objects in the drawings are things which the children’s grandfather has to recognize, places where he and his brother went as kids.  This book also introduces Hermit Dan, who appears in another book.

This book is part of the Liza, Bill, and Jed Mysteries series.

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The Mystery at Fire Island

mysteryfireislandThe Mystery at Fire Island by Hope Campbell, 1978.

Darcy Littlewood, called “Dash,” is appalled when her art teacher tells her not to draw anything over the summer.  Drawing comes almost as naturally as breathing to Dash, who wants to be a cartoonist when she grows up.  She’s always doing sketches and caricatures of people she sees, especially her younger brother, JC (James Colson Littlewood, also known as “Coleslaw”).  But, her art teacher thinks that her style has grown too strong and inflexible too early in her life.  He thinks that if she takes a break from drawing for the summer, she’ll be able to come back to it with a fresh approach that will allow her to try different styles as she grows older.

To Dash, the idea of not drawing at all is intolerable, especially since she broke her leg shortly before the start of summer vacation.  She can’t go much of anywhere or do much of anything while her family is staying at their beach house on Fire Island.  Without much to do, she doesn’t know how she’d entertain herself if she couldn’t draw.

Her older sister, Candace, isn’t happy about spending the summer on Fire Island, either.  She says that there’s never anything to do there, although their mother attributes part of her boredom to the fact that she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t have an outstanding talent or a particular goal in her life.  Everyone else in the family is artistically-inclined in some way.  Mrs. Littlewood is a writer, Mr. Littlewood teaches drama, JC has acting skills and a special talent for imitating people, and Dash has her art.  Mrs. Littlewood thinks that Candy’s attitude would improve if she found something that she was especially good at and truly cared about.

While Dash is brooding about her inability to stop drawing in spite of her art teacher’s request, she makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Guizot, an eccentric older woman who spots her drawing caricatures.  It turns out that Mrs. Guizot is an art lover, and she quickly becomes a fan of Dash’s work.  But, there is something mysterious about Mrs. Guizot, or at least the man they see her talking to.

Both Dash and JC notice that the man has a peculiar way of standing and walking.  Dash draws it, and JC imitates it.  So, when they see the same man on the beach later that night, looking different without his beard and wig, but still walking and standing the same way, they wonder why the man was in disguise.  Also, he seems to be going out surfing when there aren’t any waves for surfing.  Then, they discover that he’s bringing scuba tanks with him, and they aren’t real scuba tanks.  What is the man doing?

The kids try to investigate the mysterious man with JC doing much of the leg work at first because Dash can’t get around very well.  JC is worried about what they might learn because the man might turn out to be truly sinister and violent.  He even has suspicions about Mrs. Guizot.  Later, Dash’s leg improves and she’s able to take a more active role in the investigation, but the kids pretend like she’s still laid up as a cover for their activities.  The kids’ investigation doesn’t go as planned, but they do uncover a crime and also inadvertently help their sister to find her life’s vocation.

Part of the story has to do with seeing with depth.  Part of the reason why Dash’s art teacher wants her to observe more and draw less is so that her art will contain more depth.  Dash also learns to see the depths of people, the things they keep hidden behind their facades.  Her sister, Candy, also has hidden depths which even she doesn’t appreciate yet.

The story was later made into a tv movie by the same name, and the picture on the front cover of this edition of the book is from the movie.

Posted on by TracyC

Eleven Kids, One Summer

ElevenKids

Eleven Kids, One Summer by Ann M. Martin, 1991.

People who recognize the name Ann M. Martin probably know it from the Baby-sitters Club series, although she has written more than just that.  This book is the sequel to Ten Kids, No Pets, which introduces the Rosso family.  I’ve read the book, although I don’t currently own a copy.  Mrs. Rosso has a system for everything (which is important in a family with so many kids, especially since Mr. Rosso is absent-minded), and one of the first systems she invented was the system for naming her children.  She chose their names from a book of baby names in alphabetical order, giving the first A name under the girls’ section to her first child (Abigail), the second name under B in the boys’ section to her second child (Bainbridge) and so on.  It was an efficient system, but many of the children have strange names now, which fits their eccentric family life.  Fortunately, the children assert their own personalities and give themselves nicknames, which also is part of their family life.  In the first book, the Rosso children decide that they really want a pet, something they’re forbidden to have because their parents think it will be too much to handle with their big, busy family.  By the end of the book, they do succeed in getting a pet, and their mother gives birth to her eleventh child.

In Eleven Kids, One Summer, the entire Rosso family (including the cat Zsa-Zsa) is spending the summer in a rented house on Fire Island.  Like the first book, the second is series of short stories, one about each child in the family and how they spend the summer.  Because the children are all part of the same family, the stories all connect, but splitting them up gives some focus to each of the children and allows readers to see events from different perspectives (which is important to really get the full story of some of the things that happen over the summer).  The special things about summer vacation are the possibilities for adventure and the experiences that may change you by summer’s end.

Abigail and the Train-Trip Disaster — Abigail, the oldest child in the family and the most responsible, introduces her family for the benefit of new readers and talks about their chaotic trip to the island where they will be spending the summer.  Even though traveling with such a large family can be a hassle, it gives her the chance to meet a movie star and make some new friends.

Calandra and the Mystery Next Door — Calandra (called Candy) is the dreamy, imaginative child in the family.  She becomes convinced that the old house next to her family’s beach house is haunted.  There’s just something odd about the place, and it’s starting to give her nightmares.

Faustine and the Great Fish Protest — Faustine has always loved animals.  When she watches some fishermen on the island and sees the way fish flop around before they die, she gets angry and decides to become an animal rights activist.  From this point on, she refuses to eat meat or wear anything made of animal products.  But, the hardest part of having a cause that you care deeply about is accepting that not everyone else will feel the same way.

Hannah and the Ghosts — Hannah feels like the odd child out in her family.  None of the other children really share her interests, and she doesn’t have a close, special friend.  That’s why she plays practical jokes on the others.  She’s bored, and feels the need to liven things up and get attention.  Some of her jokes are mean, though.  Hannah knows that Candy thinks the house next door is haunted, so she’s decided to convince her that it’s true.  At least, until Hannah finds the friend she really needs.

Ira and the Hospital Adventure — Ira catches Lyme disease when he is bitten by ticks and has to go to the hospital.  At first, he’s very scared, but everyone does their best to cheer him up.

Janthina and the Beauty Treatment — Jan feels bad sometimes because she used to be the baby of the family, and since Keegan was born, she doesn’t get as much attention.  When her grandparents come to visit, she hopes for some extra attention and maybe that special pink Puffin’ Pal doll that she wants. Instead, her grandparents bring along her aunt and uncle and younger cousins.  What can Jan do to get some attention?

Dagwood and the Million-Dollar Idea — Dagwood (called Woody) is looking for ways to earn extra money.  There are just so many things he wants to buy!  One of his brothers, Eberhard (called Hardy), gives him the idea of going into business, and when he spots some young children getting money for drawing things on seashells, he realizes that he can do the same thing.  In fact, he can do better by making animals out of seashells.  If only some of the other boys on the island would just leave him alone.

Gardenia and the Movie on the Beach — Ever since Abbie met the teenage movie star and learned about the movie that they’re making on the island, various members of the Rosso family have spent time talking with the movie people and their friends and watching the filming.  Now, all the Rosso kids get a chance to be extras in a crowd scene on the beach.  But, that’s not enough for Gardenia.  She wants to be a star!

Bainbridge and the Case of the Curious Kidnapping — Bainbridge (he’s never found a good short form for his name) is fourteen years old and interested in girls.  Things are going well with the girl he’s just made friends with, but their time is cut short when she has to leave the island suddenly due to do a family emergency.  With nothing better to do than do help Woody sell his seashell creations, Bainbridge thinks his last days on the island are going to be dull.  Then, he meets Blaire, a pretty girl with a name almost as strange as his own (so she says).  But, while he’s talking to her, his baby brother Keegan disappears!

Eberhard and the House of the Cursed — Hardy wants to be a detective and loves opportunities to practice his skills.  His sleuthing senses are on high alert after Hannah runs off with Keegan while Bainbridge is talking to a pretty girl and is found following Keegan’s stroller as it seems to roll by itself down the boardwalk.  Hardy knows Hannah’s tricks and figures that she’s up to something.  Then, Candy asks him to help her clear up something that’s been bothering her all summer: the mystery of the haunted house next door.  Although everyone has told Candy that it’s not really haunted, that it’s just her imagination and some mean tricks of Hannah’s, Candy is still convinced that there’s something mysterious about the place.  She thinks that the ghosts there might have even influenced Hannah to do the things she’s done. Detective Hardy is on the case!

Keegan and the End of Summer — As a baby, Keegan doesn’t understand a lot, but he loves his family, and he listens as Abigail explains to him that summer is over, and it’s time for them to go home.

This book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Just Tell Me When We’re Dead!

JustTellMeJust Tell Me When We’re Dead! by Eth Clifford, 1983.

This is another book in the Mary Rose and Jo-Beth series.

Mary Rose and Jo-Beth are visiting their Grandma Post with their father while their grandmother is getting ready to go into the hospital for an operation. Their cousin Jeffrey, an orphan who lives with their grandmother, is supposed to come and stay with them until their grandmother is better, but he doesn’t want to go.

Jeff has never really gotten over the hurt from when his parents died. They used to travel a lot, but they would never take him along because he was too young. Then, one day, they were killed on one of their trips, which is why Jeff now lives with his grandmother. Now that his grandmother is going to the hospital, Jeff is afraid that she will die, too, and unable to face that, he runs away to be on his own.

JustTellMePic2The first place he goes is to an island in the middle of the lake near his house. The island has campgrounds and an amusement park, which is now closed for the season. Mary Rose and Jo-Beth, realizing where Jeff has gone, follow him there. But, the children are not alone on the island. When Jeff is captured by two criminals who are looking for loot that they stashed on the island years before, he has to keep his wits about him to find a way to summon help. Meanwhile, Mary Rose and Jo-Beth have no idea what they’ve just walked into.

At the end of the adventure, Mary Rose, Jo-Beth, and their father help Jeff to make peace with the loss of his parents and to understand that, even though unexpected and scary things can happen in life, his parents never meant to leave him. They loved him, and his grandmother and other relatives also share his sense of loss.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.