Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

"The first time you forgot my name

feels like yesterday. Feels like an hour ago.

Feels like I blink and you forgetting

is right there in front of me."

We have a new adult television series (based on a book by Brendan Cowell) here in Australia called Plum and this program covers the same issue as Before the Ever After of brain injuries to football players. In the book by Jacqueline Woodson it is American Football and Plum is all about Rugby League but really the consequence of constant head injuries is the same - an acquired brain injury. 

ZJ is watching his football dad fall apart. Dad visits so many doctors but no one seems to know what is wrong and when they do offer a diagnosis none of their medicines work and worse some make his dad's behaviour even more erratic. 

"I feel like someone's holding us,
keeping us from getting back to where we were before
and keeping us from the next place too."

"There's not a name for the way

Daddy's brain works now.

The way he forgets little things like

the importance of wearing a coat outside

on a cold day. There's not a name

for the way I catch him crying

looking around the living room like

it's his first time seeing it."

This book is a MUST add to your library especially a High School library. Listen to Colby Sharp talking about this book. I know nothing about American football but that did not take away from my appreciation of this important story. Like me, Colby loved the friends in this book. I just wanted to thank and hug Ollie, Darry and Daniel. They are so supportive of ZJ and also beautiful in the way they relate to his dad.

You know – I think I thought I was writing Before The Ever After to talk about head injuries and loss. But in the end, it became a book about friendship and family and love. So I guess I wrote because that’s what I wanted to talk about here. ZJ has some really cool friends. It was so fun putting them on the page. Jacqueline Woodson

Before the Ever After is a verse novel and you know I love this form. The publisher site suggested age nine, but I think this book will better suit mature readers aged 10+. 

A poignant and achingly beautiful narrative shedding light on the price of a violent sport. Kirkus star review

Here is the publisher blurb: For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has always been everyone's hero: a pro football superstar, a beloved member of the neighbourhood and a really, really great dad. But there's something not right about ZJ's dad these days. He's having trouble remembering things, seems to be angry all the time and is starting to forget ZJ's name. Bit by bit, ZJ has to face this new reality that his family can't keep holding on to his dad's glory days. As his dad begins to have more bad than good days, will they ever find happiness again?

In 2018 Jacqueline Woodson won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international award for children’s and young adult literature, and in 2020 she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award (IBBY) an international award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature.

Raven Winter by Susanna Bailey

Billie and her mum have moved out of the family home because dad has been sent to jail following a crime involving money (sounds like a white-collar crime). Now mum has found a new partner but he is a horrible and aggressive man who holds an enormous amount of power over her mum. He has excluded their friends and he demands the house be kept spotlessly clean. He has 'hidden' all of her dad's possessions in the garage. Dad loved the outdoors and especially birds and he and Billie share a very special bond and so Billie desperately misses him and she is sure he has no idea that they have moved. She is also certain mum and dad can get back together and that dad can help mum understand Daniel is dangerous. 

Billie decides she needs to find her dad and this decision becomes even more urgent when she discovers letters from her dad hidden in a box under her mum's bed. When she first leaves home she finds a young raven with an injured wing. She abandons her plan and smuggles him into her room. Luckily this is the week Daniel is not home because he is a long-distance truck driver. For her second attempt to run away she decides to look in those boxes in the garage. Daniel is away again and she wants to find her dad's bird books but just as she is unpacking the boxes Daniel arrives home. His violent reaction is utterly terrible. So now Billie really does have to go. But how? Her new friend Nell has accidentally offered the perfect way to do this and Billie now has to stowaway as Nell and her grandmother drive to a market near where dad has been staying. 

Blurb: Ever since Billie’s kind and nature-loving dad went to prison, her life has lost its shine. And now, Mum’s new boyfriend has moved in and home is full of sharp-glass silences. Billie’s never felt more alone. Until one day she discovers an injured young raven and in nursing him back to life, Billie finds friendship, hope and a letter that might bring her one step closer to reuniting with Dad. Raven Winter is the story of friendship, family and the belief in a very special relationship with a young raven set against the beautiful and the wintery backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales.

This is a harrowing story, but I was sure Susanna Bailey would provide a happy ending or at least the glimpse of a better future so I kept reading Raven Winter even though at times I just had to stop, walk away and take a breath. This is a book for a very mature reader aged 11+ and not recommended for sensitive readers. Read a text sample here. 

Raven Winter does suggest domestic abuse and a parent who is absent due to being in jail – tough topics – but I think it is done sensitively and gently. ...  The bigger theme of the book in my view though is how children can find comfort in nature, how non-judgmental animals can help a child who feels alone, and how caring for someone or something outside of themselves, can be cathartic. Julia's Books

There are many strands to this powerful story and binding them together is a celebration of nature and its power to heal: what the author has achieved is a fine balance between sadness and beauty. Not everything is resolved but father and daughter are reunited and there’s hope for the future. There’s also a reassuring message to any reader in a situation similar to Billie about the importance of going to a trusted adult for help. Red Reading Hub

Companion books:

Dragon Skin

The Star outside my window

Here are other books by Susanna Bailey

Sea in Winter by Christine Day

Author blurb: It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions. Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels. With everything she’s dealing with, Maisie is not excited for their family midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up. But soon, Maisie’s anxieties and dark moods start to hurt as much as the pain in her knee. How can she keep pretending to be strong when on the inside she feels as roiling and cold as the ocean?

Maisie lives in Seattle. Her mum is Makah from Washington State, her dad was Piscataway and he grew up in Baltimore. Sadly her dad was killed in Afghanistan. Her new step dad is an enrolled citizen of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and he great up in Port Angeles. Over the course of their road trip Jack tells Maisie and her brother Connor stories of the ancestors but the main focus of this story is on Maisie's ballet accident and her hopes to be a performer some time in the near future. Then she has a second accident and the story becomes one about accepting change and finding a new path.

Awards for this book:

• An American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book!
• A Finalist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award!
• Washington State Representative at the National Book Festival!
• Top 10 in the Winter 2020-2021 Kids’ Indie Next List!
• A Junior Library Guild Selection!
• A School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, and American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL) Best Book of 2021!
• A Politics and Prose Children & Teens Favorite of 2021!
• An Indigo Books Best Kids Book of the Year!

An insightful, stirring read about healing and resilience. Kirkus

It’s important to note that that the book itself is also historic as it is part of the first list of books to be published by Heartdrum—a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, which offers stories about young Native heroes by Native and First Nations’ authors and illustrators. The Children's Book Review

Christine Day’s writing is always quiet, poignant, and insightful, and The Sea in Winter is especially so. Maisie is a deeply introspective character whose suffering will be deeply felt by all who read this book. Yet, this book manages to be uplifting with the help of Maisie’s brother Connor and her warm, loving family and friends. Reading Middle Grade