The Goodbye Time

December 15, 2008
Conway (The Melting Season
) shoehorns a whole lot of story into this middle-grade drama, and barely pulls it off. About to graduate from fifth grade, best friends Katy and Anna, the narrator, still play imaginary games. But the real world is intruding. As Anna dreads losing her 15-year-old genius brother to Harvard in the fall, Katy's profoundly developmentally disabled brother suddenly needs to be institutionalized. (On top of this inequity, Anna's parents are happily married; Katy's, bitterly divorced.) An additional story line involves a classmate whose father has recently died; he and Anna like each other. Given so many developments, it's not surprising that Anna's emotional responses seem a little blunted, even when Katy inexplicably turns on her. But the writing is simple and clear, and gently delivers the message that growing up is inextricably linked with change. As Anna concludes, “I just miss us, Katy and Anna, those girls who played and are gone now.” Ages 8–12.

November 15, 2008
"Why do people say New Beginnings when they really mean the opposite? " wonders Manhattanite Anna, as her fifth-grade graduation approaches and changes seem to be affecting everyone she knows. Her intellectually gifted 15-year-old brother will be leaving for Harvard soon, and her classmate Michael, who just returned to school after a lengthy absence following his father 's death, will be moving away. While Anna and her best friend, Katy, once role-played their favorite television show, using fake accents to boot, the two become separated by Katy 's anger and sadness when her mentally disabled brother is placed in a care facility. Easing the tween through this period of growing up are her parents ', her brother 's and Michael 's pithy words of wisdom. In this breezy, quick, first-person narrative, Anna teeters between lingering in childhood and becoming a teenager. Mixing age-appropriate feelings and observations too experienced for someone Anna 's age, Conway presents a children 's novel that wants to be YA. Even the cover is ambiguous. (Fiction. 9-12)

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Starred review from February 1, 2009
Gr 4-6-Conway writes in the true, clear voice of a fifth grader. Like most young girls, Anna has moments of insecurity; she has an intense friendship with her best friend, Katy, and a deep relationship with her parents and older brother. Then, as her friendship with Katy becomes rocky, her beloved brother heads off to Harvard, and she no longer has the joy of her make-believe world where she pretended to be a character in a television show. With the support of her parents, she is able to work through her unhappiness about the changes in her life. Readers are introduced to issues of socioeconomic status in a realistic, yet gentle way. Anna has so much in the material sense that she truly does not understand what it is like to be Katy, who has a single mom and a younger brother with developmental disabilities who must be sent to an institution when he becomes uncontrollable. Conway gives children a way to think about the lives of those who have a much more difficult time in a way that is enlightening without being preachy."Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD"

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