Things Seen from Above by Shelley Pearsall

"You can never tell where a simple line may lead."

"I am the artist and no one can tell me what art to make."

One of the best feelings in the world is beginning a wonderful book and then having time to enjoy the whole book,  the whole wonderful story journey, in just one day. I picked up Things Seen from Above this morning to read on the train. I read about 72 pages and then a few more on the way home and then I devoured the remainder of the book (252 pages in total) before dinner.

April is in Grade Six. Her former friend has changed over the summer into someone she no longer recognises. The lunch room feels like a battle ground. To avoid the lunch conflict and the dreadful feeling of not fitting in and having no friends, April volunteers to be a playgound seat friendship buddy. The elementary school in this book is so large that there are several sessions for lunch. April assists the kids from fourth grade during their break while her grade are in the cafeteria. 

There is a new girl in the school called Veena. She has moved to Marshallville from India. The school counsellor suggests Veena and April might work together on the buddy bench.

On her first day in her new role April notices a young boy called Joey Byrd. He is alone and seems to be doing something strange in the playground - drawing patterns and circles using his shoes to scrape the dirt. What is he doing? And why?

"The more I studied Joey, the more things I noticed. I made a mental list of them. How he walked with his hands clenched and his thumbs pointing outward like a hitch-hiker. How his grey sweatpants were way too short and the elastic bunched around his ankles. How his mouth was pressed into such a tight line of concentration, It didn't look like he had lips. What was he concentrating on?"

When the school janitor - the wonderful Mr Ulysses invites the girls to view Joey's work from the school roof they begin to realise the significance and enormity of Joey's art. The three of them agree to keep this a secret but then they accidentally share the information with another student and at this point things begin to spiral out of control.  

"I want to apologise again for what happened. Veena and I think you are a really cool person who does amazing drawings - or tracings, as you call them. You're like ... a star to us."

"Joey's popularity also seemed to pull other forgotten kids out of the shadows. It was as if he shone a bright light on anyone who was hiding in a corner or standing against a wall alone. The outcasts started getting noticed. The excluded were included."

An uplifting story of friendship, kindness, and new ways of seeing. Kirkus

One of the strengths of this book is the beautiful restrained way April approaches Joey. She shows enormous emotional intelligence. She doesn't rush Joey. She listens, observes and waits and then approaches him slowly. I would love to meet April and thank her for her compassion and her wisdom. 

There are alternating chapters in this book where we hear from Joey and are able to experience his different view of the world, his different understandings of human relationships, and his wonderful skill with enormous art pieces. We also glimpse his mother and father and learn a little about their personalities which go some way to explaining Joey's reactions and understandings.  At one point Joey talks about a class reading lesson. Reading is a mystery and a huge effort for Joey and sadly he is regularly expelled from this classroom but in this scene the teacher is reading "The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda".

"It was a very funny story, and Joey really like it. It was the first book he'd every liked - partly because it made him laugh and partly because he didn't have to read it himself. "

You can read the back story for this book on Shelley Pearsall's web page. Things Seen from Above was published in 2020 and it is available in paperback so I highly recommend you add this to your library (and personal) shopping list. Read more of the plot here. 

You can read about another book by Shelley Pearsall The Seventh Most Important Thing:

Here are some companion books to read after Things Seen from Above:

My life as an Alphabet

A Boy Called Bat

Counting by 7s

The Someday Birds

Loser

The Raven's Children by Yulia Yakovleva translated by Ruth Ahmedzoi Kemp

Maybe this was all the work of ordinary people. They allowed these horrid things to happen because they didn't speak out to stop it. People didn't dare to help their neighbours, they rushed to turn away and ignore them when they were in need ... and that hung over the people like a poisonous cloud, a permanently dull grey sky. 

Publisher blurb: Russia in 1938 is a place of great terror. Joseph Stalin is in charge. His Secret Police are everywhere, searching for anyone who might be his enemy. People have no idea who they can trust. Seven-year-old Shura doesn't know about any of this. He's happy in his little home in Leningrad going to school in the mornings, playing with his best friend in the afternoon, fighting with his big sister, spending time with his Mama, Papa and baby brother Bobka. Until one day everything changes. Mama and Papa and Bobka disappear without a trace. The whispers of their neighbours are that Mama and Papa were spies, enemies of Stalin and so they have now been taken by something mysterious called The Raven. Desperate to reunite his family, Shura decides to hunt down The Raven, finding help in the most unexpected places but facing more danger than he has ever known . . .

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing:

"Shura sighed bitterly. What a waste of seven years! There was so much he hadn't done; he'd never even owned a dog. And now this pointless end. All because he wanted to try the new Eskimo (icecream) before the rest of the kids in their year. How stupid."

"And where's Papa? ' 'He's gone away ... Not for long. He had to go on an urgent business trip. They sent a telegram and asked him to come. So he had to go away for a bit. But he'll be back soon. Definitely. They'll sort it all out and he'll be back soon."

"He knew it wasn't good to be petit bourgeois. Shura had heard Mama and Papa say so, although he wasn't really sure what it meant."

"The floor was scattered with photograph albums, the one's Mama had been tearing pictures out of and feeding to the fire yesterday. They lay open with empty pages sticking up in the air helplessly. Things were strewn about as if someone had picked the whole room up, turned it upside down, shaken everything out and then dropped it back down."

"Now, like the building where Tanya and Shura lived, it was inhabited by new tenants who had never experienced luxury, who lived with one family in each room. Because in the Soviet Union everyone was equal."

"Soon after the first frosts, the shop windows were decorated with portraits of Stalin. Mostly, the portraits showed a large beaky nose and a black moustache; some had something distinctly raven-like about them."

"How could Shura make him understand that everyone who arrived at the Grey House ended up broken? That everyone fell under their control. It made not difference whether you were brave, kind, cheeky, strong-willed, shy, smart or quick witted. Everyone was reduced to identical grey shadows. They walked in formation, They obeyed every command and worked their fingers to the bone."

This book is very different - perhaps because it comes from Russia. It is based around a period of history that is sure to be unfamiliar to Australian readers (aged 11+). This book will appeal to readers who are curious about history especially Russian history, readers who enjoy books with a political layer and readers who enjoy books with touches of magical realism (talking birds). 

Here are some reviews with more plot details:

Eurolit Network

ReadPlus

Here are some other books which explore history through the eyes of a young child:

When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit

What about me?

Vinnie's War

The Blackbird Girls (for mature readers)

The Dollar Kids by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Lowen draws cartoons. With a lot of practice he has become very skilled. He and his family live in a city apartment building. Across the hall lives a younger boy called Abe.  Abe likes to visit Lowen and watch him draw. Abe always has lots of questions and comments and suggestions but often Lowen just wants to get on with his work - alone! Lowen knows Abe loves twizzlers. Lowen gives Abe some money and tells him to go to the store and buy some. Abe is gone for a long time then Lowen's mum arrives with the utterly shocking news that Abe has been shot and killed.

Lowen is wracked with grief. He sees an advertisement for one dollar houses in a little town called Millville. The town are selling five rundown houses for one dollar each as a way to boost their falling school enrollments and as a way to add players to the various sport teams in the town.

"It seemed like a way out. If they moved, he wouldn't have to walk past the Siskins' door every day. He would no longer be tricked into thinking that Abe was going to pop out at any minute. He would no longer have to hear Mrs Siskin crying."

Dad is keen to move because he is training to be a doctor and wants to help people in less affluent areas. Mum is keen to move because she has a dream of opening a restaurant to sell Cornish pasties. Clem is open to the idea of moving because he loves sports and he thinks in this small town he can rise to be a star. Anneth, Lowen's sister, does not want to move. She will miss her friends and shops and social life.

The family make the move knowing there are conditions. After all how can a house only cost one dollar? How will the community receive them? Will Lowen ever recover? Can he take a risk and make new friends?

The house:

"The kitchen cabinets had doors, but they were ill-fitting, crooked. Two of the cupboard doors had come off ... the floor was a patchwork of bare wood and linoleum. ... They passed through the dining room, which had water spots on the ceiling and floor ... the bathroom had black grunge growing on the walls, and several of the shower tiles had fallen off."

The town:

"What was the word Lowen was looking for? Downtroddenness. Former stores and businesses were boarded up. And even those still in business ... were all in desperate need of paint. The spotty patches of grass in front of the stores needed mowing; the garbage needed picking up."

The mill:

"This spot afforded them the best view of the mill, or what used to be a mill. Here again, what had looked so proud and shiny on the website now looked decrepit. It was an enormous tangle of boxy structures, pipes, and vaporless smokestacks - a breathless giant."

Early one evening this week I picked up The Dollar Kids intending to read a chapter or two. I ended up reading late into the night and then I finished the whole book (400 pages) by mid morning.  This book engulfed me.

Here is an example of the graphic novel  pages by Ryan Andrews which appear in this book. I hesitate to call it a graphic novel because less than 20 pages use this format.

Jacobson insightfully examines the dynamics of small-town life and strategies for revitalization as well as the landscape of Lowen’s complex grief and survivor’s guilt. The story incorporates Lowen’s graphic-novel panels contemplating his feelings about his deceased friend, Abe,whom he calls “the unseen force,” …  A rich, thoughtful exploration of individual and community resilience. Kirkus

Jacobson manages to tell an excellently nuanced story of all sorts of after-lives—after death, after failure, after loss, afterwards.Bulletin of the Centre for Children’s Books

This was a great look at a different type of life that will be new and informative for many readers. The Grovers are struggling financially, although they were doing okay in the city. The family bonding because of the move was interesting, and the reality of setting up a restaurant was fun to read. The reaction of the townspeople was also intriguing, and the story moved at a decent pace. … the story of small town life is such a fantastic one that I can't wait to hand it to my readers. Ms Yingling

If I haven't convinced you to READ THIS BOOK! then take a look at this personal insight by Jennifer on the Nerdy Book Club page.

Listen to an audio sample here.  I loved a previous book by Jennifer Richard Jacobson - Paper Things.

I would follow The Dollar Kids with Each Little bird that Sings.