Walking Backward

February 1, 2010
Gr 5-8-In a journalistic format, 12-year-old Josh writes about coping with his mother's death. His father has completely given up parenting, leaving Josh in charge of his four-year-old brother, Sam, and all of the household duties. Instead, he attempts to build a time machine to go back in time and prevent his wife's death (she had an accident when startled by a snake in her car), and his brother seems intent on channeling his mother's spirit through a toy Power Ranger. Through his own process, Josh delves into the mourning rituals of various faiths and cultures, seeking structure through which to make sense of the world as it exists after his mother. Throughout the tale, even as Josh takes on responsibilities to reinstate the structure and cohesion of his family unit, he is plagued by the mystery of how the snake got into his ophidiophobic mother's car. Throughout his emotional journey, Josh's voice is both natural and believable. Austen is both unsentimental and unapologetic in her employment of precise and elegant prose, and the complicated and often humorous reactions to grieving practices lend themselves to an enjoyable read."Joanie Terrizzi, New York City Public Schools"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2009
Grades 6-9 The dead-parent genre is a busy one, but Austen breaks from the pack with this confident and peculiar debut. Twelve-year-old Josh is coping with his mothers death. His psychiatrist has given him, his four-year-old brother, Sam, and their father journals in which to record their feelings (the book itself comprises Joshs entries). But Josh is more interested in rituals; Japanese Buddhists, for example, mourn for 49 days, and he clings to this number as tightly as Sam clings to the Power Ranger toy he thinks is their dead mother. She died in a car crash, startled by a snake that was inside the vehicle, and there is a mystery of sorts to be solvedwho would put a snake inside a car? But with insistent, precocious prose, Austen is more interested in peoples alternately funny and haunting reactions to grief, an exploration that finds its most affecting metaphor with Joshs fathers attempt to construct a time machine. Austen is unsentimental about anger and regret, and that alone makes this a refreshing change of pace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)