Blurb: "I can't let go of them - the good, right things - because if I do I'll turn into a cloud and I'll float away, and a storm will come and blow me to nothing. Eleven-year-old Aster attends a school for gifted kids, but she doesn't think she's special at all. If she was her mother wouldn't have left. Each day Aster must do a good thing - a challenge she sets herself, to make someone else's life better. Nobody can know about her things, because then they won't count. And if she doesn't do them, she's sure everything will go wrong. Then she meets Xavier. He has his own kind of special missions to make life better. When they do these mission together, Aster feels free, but if she stops doing her good, right things, will everything fall apart?"
The reviewer at Little Big Reads sums up my reaction and perhaps difficulty with this book which is a rewarding one to read but at the same time the journey is harrowing. Rebekah Lyell says : "If you’ve been there, I feel like your experience of the story will be different from others that read it."
In this first person narrative we can see right inside Aster. She is a deeply sensitive girl who finds so many aspects of her life extremely difficult. Aster is good at communicating with us (the reader) about her inner most thoughts and deep sadness but she is not good at communicating with her dad or other close family members. Instead she blames herself for every wrong thing and works hard to protect her dad by assuring him that things are going okay when clearly they are not. The biggest wrong thing of all is that Aster's mother left the family when Aster was ten and the real heart break around this is that Aster blames herself. We are not told much about Aster's mother but it is very clear she has serious mental health issues. For personal reasons I found some parts of this story very confronting but the writing is so beautifully crafted and the relationships so beautifully explored and so I do recommend Aster's good right things for sensitive readers aged 10+. If you have read The illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson you will have some idea about the tone and themes of this book. The difference here is that it is Aster herself who is also struggling with depression.
By coincidence as I have been writing this post (over a couple of days because I have found it difficult to express my ideas) ABC All in the Mind presented this program - "Parenting with a mental illness". In this interview the author Michelle Vasiliu talks about her book, her children and her experiences.
I do find books which touch on issues of mental health and mental illness "hard" to read. I'm thinking of books like The Elephant by Peter Caarnavas; The Red Tree by Shaun Tan; The illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson; Nest by Esther Ehrlich; and Against the Odds by Marjolijn Hof;
Kate Gordon interviewed by Megan Daley: If you could have one wish for the world what would that be? Just more kindness. More understanding and acceptance of difference. Everyone has value and a place in this world.
I would pair Aster's right good things with these:
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