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Rachel feels she should talk more to Izzy, but every conversation with him is a trial. Then Izzy falls in the street, and the doctors discover he has cancer. He can no longer go on his beloved walks alone, and Rachel becomes his reluctant companion. The after-school visits begin as a chore, but gradually Izzy becomes the most important thing in Rachel's life--even more important than her friendship with Lewis Olswanger.
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First published May 29, 1987
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About the author
Norma Fox Mazer
58 books104 followersNorma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults.
She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.
New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."
Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.
Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...
She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.
New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."
Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.
Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
April 3, 2010
One of my favorite things about this book is how believeable it is. I don't mean that in the sense that it's realistic fiction rather than fantasy, either- I mean the characters. Despite the fact that they are all distinct and very diverse, there isn't a single person I would describe as unrealistic, nor do any of the relationships feel strained or fake in the slightest. Rachel, in particular, is a perfectly average teenage girl
After the Rain has very little flair, but it doesn't need any. This is the very embodiemnt of the phrase "simplicity is the finest form of sophistication"; it gets its message across without bells or whistles, and though it may not shatter your worldview, the changes it does bring about are going to stick.
That message? Time can never be too precious, and you just might find yourself loving someone if you give them a chance.
A beautiful book with lovely writing.
After the Rain has very little flair, but it doesn't need any. This is the very embodiemnt of the phrase "simplicity is the finest form of sophistication"; it gets its message across without bells or whistles, and though it may not shatter your worldview, the changes it does bring about are going to stick.
That message? Time can never be too precious, and you just might find yourself loving someone if you give them a chance.
A beautiful book with lovely writing.
November 28, 2010
When I was a kid, Saturday, the Twelfth of October by Norma Fox Mazer was one of my favorite books. I can’t tell you about the first time I read it or the effect it had on me. But I can say that I read it many, many times. When I rediscovered it as an adult, it still managed to entertain the heck out of me. Mazer didn’t write any other fantasy novels, but I’ve been (slowly!) working my way through her YA books anyway hoping to find something as good as Saturday. So far, I’ve been disappointed, but I finally struck gold with After the Rain.
Reading this book initially took a lot of patience. So many times I wanted to put it down due to boredom. It just moved slowly and seemed old fashioned. Granted when I checked the publication date, it was 1987. And although that doesn’t seem so long ago to me (ahem!) it is 23, now almost 24 years ago…. Anyhow, it struck me how much YA literature has changed. After the Rain doesn’t involve a palpitation inducing drama, conflict, love interest or mystery. There is little action and the dialogue is not witty or fast paced. But I am so very glad I stuck with it. Mazer tells a story about family, death, sickness, friendship and first love. Her talent is that she has the ability to tackle some very heavy subjects without making it sound like a very special episode of a bad 1980’s sitcom. It’s so hard to praise a good coming of age novel without sounding cliché, so I’m going to quit trying. I definitely recommend this for YA readers of any age.
A final note ~ as we learn in the synopsis, grandpa is diagnosed with a terminal illness. I have to say that I was appalled by the way his doctor treated him. When the doctor decided on a diagnosis, he told the family but insisted grandpa be kept in the dark, which is pretty fucked up. Grandpa is an independent, alert and oriented person; he deserves to know he is dying. Then, when grandpa’s disease is progressing the family calls the doctor who shrugs his shoulders and says there is nothing to be done. Uh, hospice consult, anyone? Portable oxygen, PRN ativan, roxanol, breathing treatments, nutritional supplements and home health visits. Uh… anyway… the thing is, as a nurse who works with elderly, terminally sick and dying patients I kept reading about grandpa’s disease and automatically thinking of what needed to be done to make him more comfortable but none of these steps were taken. Were things really so different in 1987? The worst was when grandpa got really bad and was admitted to the hospital. The doctor jovially said, “We’ll run some tests and have you out of here in a few days.” Then turned to the family (when grandpa was out of earshot) and said he won’t be leaving the hospital…ever. What the hell? Grandpa is literally on his deathbed, and that fuckwad of a doctor still doesn’t have the balls to be straight with him. Poor grandpa.
Reading this book initially took a lot of patience. So many times I wanted to put it down due to boredom. It just moved slowly and seemed old fashioned. Granted when I checked the publication date, it was 1987. And although that doesn’t seem so long ago to me (ahem!) it is 23, now almost 24 years ago…. Anyhow, it struck me how much YA literature has changed. After the Rain doesn’t involve a palpitation inducing drama, conflict, love interest or mystery. There is little action and the dialogue is not witty or fast paced. But I am so very glad I stuck with it. Mazer tells a story about family, death, sickness, friendship and first love. Her talent is that she has the ability to tackle some very heavy subjects without making it sound like a very special episode of a bad 1980’s sitcom. It’s so hard to praise a good coming of age novel without sounding cliché, so I’m going to quit trying. I definitely recommend this for YA readers of any age.
A final note ~ as we learn in the synopsis, grandpa is diagnosed with a terminal illness. I have to say that I was appalled by the way his doctor treated him. When the doctor decided on a diagnosis, he told the family but insisted grandpa be kept in the dark, which is pretty fucked up. Grandpa is an independent, alert and oriented person; he deserves to know he is dying. Then, when grandpa’s disease is progressing the family calls the doctor who shrugs his shoulders and says there is nothing to be done. Uh, hospice consult, anyone? Portable oxygen, PRN ativan, roxanol, breathing treatments, nutritional supplements and home health visits. Uh… anyway… the thing is, as a nurse who works with elderly, terminally sick and dying patients I kept reading about grandpa’s disease and automatically thinking of what needed to be done to make him more comfortable but none of these steps were taken. Were things really so different in 1987? The worst was when grandpa got really bad and was admitted to the hospital. The doctor jovially said, “We’ll run some tests and have you out of here in a few days.” Then turned to the family (when grandpa was out of earshot) and said he won’t be leaving the hospital…ever. What the hell? Grandpa is literally on his deathbed, and that fuckwad of a doctor still doesn’t have the balls to be straight with him. Poor grandpa.
November 9, 2018
"I guess, really thinking about it, I always assumed when you missed someone, it was tangible...something real you could grab and hold on to, but it's a not-there feeling."
—Rachel, After the Rain, P. 243
This book doesn't have a lot of flair to it. It certainly jumps out at the reader much less than most young adult books that I have read, but you'll find the real power of After the Rain in the utterly compelling, totally realistic feel that it brings to all of the relationships enclosed within.
Rachel is a regular girl in many ways, but she also has her own way of viewing the world, and her own take on family and relationships and the way that things should work, giving her basic idiosyncrasies like everyone has.
If After the Rain had focused almost entirely on only the relationships between Rachel and her grandpa and Rachel and her unexpected new companion Lewis Olswanger, it would have been a noble triumph, a book of rare depth and insight to be treasured for its glowing strength and remembered always. Norma Fox Mazer takes the concept of relationships much further than that, however. We see Rachel experiencing dynamic, living, breathing relationships with almost everyone who enters into the narrative's course, setting forth while slowly realizing what each of these personal connections mean to her as she grows into a wise, thoughtful teenager.
The scenes between Rachel and Lewis are bulging at the seams with some kind of understated magic, special and sweet and perceptive, warming the heart and bringing light to the mind's eye. The scenes with Rachel and her grandpa bring about the same effect but in a wholly different way, allowing us to experience the full spectrum of the quality of relationships for ourselves. It is a rare and wonderful book that accomplishes these subtle objectives with such true graceful goodness.
After the Rain will stay behind in one's thoughts long after finishing the book. You will remember the characters and think on them, wanting to know them personally, to see what it would mean to you to interact with Lewis and Rachel and Helena and Jeremy and more. In my mind, this fine novel is a true and rich success, and I liked it very much. I would give three and a half stars to After the Rain.
—Rachel, After the Rain, P. 243
This book doesn't have a lot of flair to it. It certainly jumps out at the reader much less than most young adult books that I have read, but you'll find the real power of After the Rain in the utterly compelling, totally realistic feel that it brings to all of the relationships enclosed within.
Rachel is a regular girl in many ways, but she also has her own way of viewing the world, and her own take on family and relationships and the way that things should work, giving her basic idiosyncrasies like everyone has.
If After the Rain had focused almost entirely on only the relationships between Rachel and her grandpa and Rachel and her unexpected new companion Lewis Olswanger, it would have been a noble triumph, a book of rare depth and insight to be treasured for its glowing strength and remembered always. Norma Fox Mazer takes the concept of relationships much further than that, however. We see Rachel experiencing dynamic, living, breathing relationships with almost everyone who enters into the narrative's course, setting forth while slowly realizing what each of these personal connections mean to her as she grows into a wise, thoughtful teenager.
The scenes between Rachel and Lewis are bulging at the seams with some kind of understated magic, special and sweet and perceptive, warming the heart and bringing light to the mind's eye. The scenes with Rachel and her grandpa bring about the same effect but in a wholly different way, allowing us to experience the full spectrum of the quality of relationships for ourselves. It is a rare and wonderful book that accomplishes these subtle objectives with such true graceful goodness.
After the Rain will stay behind in one's thoughts long after finishing the book. You will remember the characters and think on them, wanting to know them personally, to see what it would mean to you to interact with Lewis and Rachel and Helena and Jeremy and more. In my mind, this fine novel is a true and rich success, and I liked it very much. I would give three and a half stars to After the Rain.
June 17, 2015
There are quite a few Newbery honor books (and a couple winners) that I really didn't like, but I could make some guesses as to why they were chosen.
This book is the exception. I don't know why it was chosen. Let me explain why it shouldn't have been.
First, it is fairly modern, i.e. written since I was born, so it doesn't have that as an excuse for not great grammar and horrible placement of commas.
Second, the book uses some fowl language that I have only seen in rare occasion, and at those times only a few times per book, in other Newbery winners or honors.
Third, none of the characters are likable, though it is clear that the author wants them to be:
- The main character is a loser teen. The author calls her 'a worrier,' but she's more of a selfish snob. The author calls her smart, but she appears stupid to me.
- The boyfriend is immature. The author calls him smart and funny. Also quite a stupid and conceited character.
- The grandpa, (who is the other main character, not the boyfriend like you'd think from the cover - which is clearly a way to try to get teenage girls to buy the book), is mean and cold. Yes, the author did this on purpose, but she tried to shine light into him to make him seem like a good guy underneath. I think the author's idea of what good people are is a little messed up. Maybe she hasn't really known any good people.
- The uncle is a loser. The author makes his running around from job to job, girl to girl, late into his thirties, seem like he's just an adventurer. Then she gives him a hippie beard and attitude to improve his character. Seems like a loser to me.
- The best friend is a prissy fool. She's had a boyfriend every year since she was like 9 years old or something, and her whole goal throughout the story is to try to improve the main character's life by getting her a boyfriend because that's all life is to her. Lame-o.
- The lady that lives on a hill is underdeveloped. The author seems to think having her in the story is this big deep thing. Nope, sorry.
Fourth, the last chapter of the book is a short little one-pager. Usually means kind of a roll-over into life after the story. But the chapter before that did okay; this chapter didn't seem to belong (note the semi-colon instead of the comma the author would have used). The book wasn't great, but it would have been less bad if it was one page shorter.
Anyway, I guess the main idea of the story is okay. Her grandfather is dying, so she starts getting to know him better. Maybe that's why this book won an honor. Moral of the story: get to know grandpa before he kicks the bucket.
P.S. I did feel a little embarrassed reading this book on the bus. That front cover really looks like it's meant to shun anyone who is NOT a preteen girl. I tried to hide the cover while I read it. But if you look real closely, blending in to the shadow of the bridge is the grandfather - the next main character. :-)
This book is the exception. I don't know why it was chosen. Let me explain why it shouldn't have been.
First, it is fairly modern, i.e. written since I was born, so it doesn't have that as an excuse for not great grammar and horrible placement of commas.
Second, the book uses some fowl language that I have only seen in rare occasion, and at those times only a few times per book, in other Newbery winners or honors.
Third, none of the characters are likable, though it is clear that the author wants them to be:
- The main character is a loser teen. The author calls her 'a worrier,' but she's more of a selfish snob. The author calls her smart, but she appears stupid to me.
- The boyfriend is immature. The author calls him smart and funny. Also quite a stupid and conceited character.
- The grandpa, (who is the other main character, not the boyfriend like you'd think from the cover - which is clearly a way to try to get teenage girls to buy the book), is mean and cold. Yes, the author did this on purpose, but she tried to shine light into him to make him seem like a good guy underneath. I think the author's idea of what good people are is a little messed up. Maybe she hasn't really known any good people.
- The uncle is a loser. The author makes his running around from job to job, girl to girl, late into his thirties, seem like he's just an adventurer. Then she gives him a hippie beard and attitude to improve his character. Seems like a loser to me.
- The best friend is a prissy fool. She's had a boyfriend every year since she was like 9 years old or something, and her whole goal throughout the story is to try to improve the main character's life by getting her a boyfriend because that's all life is to her. Lame-o.
- The lady that lives on a hill is underdeveloped. The author seems to think having her in the story is this big deep thing. Nope, sorry.
Fourth, the last chapter of the book is a short little one-pager. Usually means kind of a roll-over into life after the story. But the chapter before that did okay; this chapter didn't seem to belong (note the semi-colon instead of the comma the author would have used). The book wasn't great, but it would have been less bad if it was one page shorter.
Anyway, I guess the main idea of the story is okay. Her grandfather is dying, so she starts getting to know him better. Maybe that's why this book won an honor. Moral of the story: get to know grandpa before he kicks the bucket.
P.S. I did feel a little embarrassed reading this book on the bus. That front cover really looks like it's meant to shun anyone who is NOT a preteen girl. I tried to hide the cover while I read it. But if you look real closely, blending in to the shadow of the bridge is the grandfather - the next main character. :-)
March 12, 2014
Did not really care for this one--not entirely sure why it was a Newbery Honor.
September 18, 2015
قرأتها منذ سنين وكانت اروع قصه حينها واعتدت قرائتها مرات عدة ولكني افتقدها الان وبشدة واتمنى ان اجدها يوما بين اغراضي المبعثرة لاعاود قرائتها والعيش فيها كالسابق
وداعا جدي لقد احببتك دوما
وداعا جدي لقد احببتك دوما
March 25, 2021
Rachel doesn't really know or like her grandfather much, despite spending every Sunday at his house with her parents. But when he starts having trouble breathing and gets a grim diagnosis from the doctor, she starts taking his daily walks with him and gradually comes to recognize the love between them.
A Newbery Honor book that, as it seems to me, won the Honor on the basis of tackling the subject of a family death. It's an honorable idea, but not very well executed here. The writing's okay, but none of the characters are all that likeable. I think for something like a treatment of this topic to work, the author needs to make the characters sympathetic enough that the reader can slide right into their shoes and easily try to imagine what they're feeling and thinking. This story, however, leaves the reader half-interested and wholly on the outside of the events; I just didn't feel invested at all.
A Newbery Honor book that, as it seems to me, won the Honor on the basis of tackling the subject of a family death. It's an honorable idea, but not very well executed here. The writing's okay, but none of the characters are all that likeable. I think for something like a treatment of this topic to work, the author needs to make the characters sympathetic enough that the reader can slide right into their shoes and easily try to imagine what they're feeling and thinking. This story, however, leaves the reader half-interested and wholly on the outside of the events; I just didn't feel invested at all.
December 7, 2025
"Later. Ma's here. She told me Dr. North has more breathing treatments for Grandpa, more codeine. She said, "Rachey, don't you think he's lost weight?"
Yes, he's lost weight. He's shrinking. He's smaller. He used to be such a big man. Now I have a little grandfather, a small man in a white hospital gown. His arms are all bones, his eyes stare out of his face."
-an extract
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(YOU CAN SKIP THIS PART IF YOU WANT)
Here's how my system works. It's basically a colour coding system where different colours, obviously, mean different things.
PINK : So, if the title is colour coded pink, colour coding for the aspects of the book won't be used. Pink basically means 'outstandingly executed', and 'completely perfect'. But if the title ISN'T pink, then colour coding for the aspects of the book will be used. There are special cases where my ratings are 4.5 or 4.75, where, in this case, despite the title being pink, colour coding for the numerous aspects will apply.
GREEN : Green means good, or 'well-executed but could've been better'. Green applies to 3.5 or 4 star ratings.
YELLOW : Yellow means 'mid'. You know what mid means. Mediocre, for the boomers. Yellow, for the people who still don't get it, means that I'm generally apathetic toward the book or the aspect, and don't care much for it. It's the code for not very memorable, less well executed but still done in a way that's good enough. (3, 2.5)
RED : Bad, but not entirely. There are some good aspects. (2, 1.5)
GREY : Horrible. Shouldn't have been written. Could've been done better, and everything about this is utter trash. I can't believe this got through publication. I'm concerned. (1, 0.5, 0)
This applies to all books I'm reviewing, whether finished or DNF'd.
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AFTER THE RAIN (Green, 3.75)
I liked it. It stuck for a while, because of the themes it's exploring. And the themes just so happen to be, drumroll, self-discovery and death. My weaknesses when it comes to these types of books. Yay. Now I have to be sensitive.
You could argue, hey, Little Women has themes of self discovery, why don't you like that? And the Book Thief has themes of death, so why did that irk you? Well, darling, you weren't arguing that and you also couldn't. I don't know what I'm saying either. Little Women has many other themes, and put together, the self discovery element becomes so subtle you can't notice it. And I don't remember anything about the Book Thief, so it seems the death element didn't stick at all.
But this book in particular-- I can remember the plot, somewhat. I can remember how good the emotions were portrayed, because Rachel felt real. Even though she was short, it wasn't her entire personality. She struggled for other reasons than her parents calling her 'mouse' because she was so small. The reasons in question are,
1- her struggles with expressing affection and getting her point across,
2- finding her purpose in general,
3- discovering what it means to be a high school student,
4- how irritated she gets because of how much everyone babies and belittles her,
and 5- relationships. Not always romantic, but it is shown she's worried about whether or not she'll get a boyfriend (spoiler: she does). This book, in the case of relationships, has a heavy emphasis on fraternal relations rather than high school drama. It's a slice of life.
Oops. I went in too deep, and it's only the introduction. Anyway, without further ado, let's hit the enough button and get to the actual review.
THE PLOT (PINK)
A lot of books I've read that weren't five stars for me were either too fast-paced or too slow, or they had too much action/drama or none. My five star/4.5 star books have the perfect balance of the two, and they flesh out dynamics and characters without reducing them to a plot device (we ignore the fact that Annabeth's character throughout PJO is a trope and Grover was abandoned directly after for no particular reason).
Reducing a character to a plot device works a bit like this. So we have our dirt-poor but somehow still immaculately pretty female MC who everyone pushes around and bullies, and she gets so frustrated with her life she gets apathetic to all the bullying somehow, and then we throw in the classic exchange student who's totally her type, but he's super handsome and she's kinda just there. So her main bully befriends him somehow while the MC is super jealous (like about to spontaneously combust type of jealousy). So what the MC does is she decides to give up on her crush rather than win him over with her totally natural charm. Her bully posts an embarrassing video of her or something, and everyone starts laughing at MC again. MC, fed up, decides to get revenge, so she glows up and exposes her main bully, and then gets with our personality-less dude and the story ends on a happy, morally weird note: be pretty and you get duuuuuuuudes.
Notice how our exchange student has no personality besides being gullible and hot and our bully is always trying her best to be a horrible person? Lack of nuance, ka-ching! But do they cause the main conflict? Yep. Do they contribute to the story in such a way where our main character undergoes some personal growth and comes out on top, ending up a horrible role model? Mhm. If they weren't there, we'd have no fuel, actually, we'd have no fire at all.
My argument doesn't make sense, sorry. There could be a counterattack saying, 'but oh, isn't every character a plot device then?' What I'm trying to say is that if you want your plot to be taken seriously and fully enjoyed, you need to explore dynamics and personalities that aren't entirely surface level. There is NOBODY out there whose personality is just being hot. People are complicated (well, not always, but not all of us are the embodiment of cheesy tropes). Kurt and Ram from Heathers are your classic jock, WHICH IS A TROPE, but they're also total jerks at the same time and they're cowards as well so they're not just classic jocks. Veronica would be the classic unpopular girl who gets a glow up and becomes famous, which is a trope, but she does wrong things and her regret for that shows, and she's challenging high school hierarchy. JD isn't just a hot dude, rather he's a conflicted psychopath. Heathers is a high school thing but no character is just a trope.
The problem with this book is how some characters feel very surface level, hence the plot doesn't feel fully developed. The two most pivotal characters are done well, and I liked Rachel's family dynamics being explored, but the problem is with Rachel's parents and friends. I don't exactly see much in them. Not every character can be explored, yes, but you should explore them even a little bit.
Anyway, the plot for this was really nice. It didn't have much action or drama; it was peaceful and serene. It's something you could read about while it's pouring rain, because it isn't creepy and it doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat with your eyes frantically darting to the next paragraph like 'oh my god what's going to happen now'. But, you may ask, how does it keep the reader engaged if there's no drama or action?
Well, darling, for that, we come to the magic of subplots, and FLUFF. The subplot is like, what happens besides the main plot. Like, take the main plot of Frozen (Disney) and then grab Olaf and Kristoff. Olaf's discovery of who he is and Kristoff's tragic pining over Anna aren't exactly important to the main point of Frozen, but they keep you engaged nonetheless. And FLUFF!! Fluff, if you (somehow) don't know, is the wholesome stuff. Percy and Sally's conversations in the Lightning Thief are fluff.
You want a hurt/comfort read? You can grab this.
WRITING STYLE
The writing style is in third person present tense, so like 'Rachel is sitting in the tiny, stifling closet under the stairs with her phone in her lap'. And then combine that with letters and journal entries (first person) and we've got our book.
I like present tenses. They're more fun to read because we're in the moment rather than reading about what happened. This is what is happening appeals to me more than this was what happened. It feels like I'm reading someone's memoir when it's in the past tense for some reason. Especially if the past tense is super formal. But if it isn't, the past tense gets way more bearable, bearable to the point I don't even notice it's in past tense. We're in the moment as things change. I like that.
The journal entries get more personal, and they're interesting to read because it's so clear she's trying to remain unbothered but she's slowly falling apart, and while she's falling apart she's also healing, so there's multiple things happening at once and it's overwhelming her.
The letters are heart warming, to say the very least. It shows she has at least someone to tell stuff to, and even if her brother Jeremy doesn't respond, she still writes to him because she wants him to know about what's going on. It shows the hopeful, giddy, more desperate side of her because she wants a response from her brother quite a lot, and... how do I explain this... it's one-sided fluff.
The writing style, all in all, is more to the simple side, and isn't very descriptive, but emotions and dynamics are handled well and I like it.
CHARACTERS (GREEN)
Finally, we come to the section we've all been waiting for. Or was that just me? Still, we'll need to categorize this because there's a bunch.
RACHEL:
I like Rachel. I relate to her because of her insecurities and her anxiety and also her temper. Her temper is portrayed realistically because hormones are EVERYWHERE and a lot of people my age tend to get overwhelmed and go into fight or flight, where either they cry it out or they get mad. This is what happens with Rachel. She's so overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at the same time, and she's juggling family with friends and schoolwork and a BOYFRIEND, and she's also so anxious, that she bottles it up constantly and when someone opens the bottle, everything spills out and then she gets anxious all over again. She doesn't know anything about her ambitions and goals and what she'll do, and if she'll get a boyfriend. She doesn't know if anyone actually likes her or if she's cool enough or good enough or just ENOUGH. I think she has alexithymia as well.
IZZY:
Diva, literal diva. He's super apathetic and cold and unreachable at first, like 'i don't give a damn' type, but in the end he's proven to genuinely care for people, just not know how to show it, and he just really loves his dead wife. He's the type to tell you you're incompetent and then make you cookies right afterward, and get super apologetic but not apologize because he finds it humiliating. I'm pretty sure he used to be a blacksmith. He also has this thing where he suppresses his emotions and appears all tough and guarded and like he hates you.
LEWIS:
He's super sweet and supportive, and he's a BOY and Rachel finds him attractive and he's positive and uplifting and all that and just the perfect guy, right? Because he's a golden retriever. And we can't forget, he's also anxious and very caring regarding Rachel-related matters, but the problem lies in his depth. I see nothing in him but that. No flaw besides dire predictability. I love Lewis, he and Rachel are really cute, but it would be much cuter if he was more flawed.
HELENA:
She's Rachel's popular girl best friend with all the gossip and drama at her fingertips. She has young parents, and a completely normal family, and she's rich and wants to be an actress. She's had multiple boyfriends, I think, and she's confident in her own beliefs and values. She's also very generally attractive and wants to be an actress. In fact, she's the one who gets Rachel and Lewis into a relationship. She cares for people but comes off as all overconfident and cool which ruins the vibe a bit, but no worries because she IS the vibe. She's like Heather C, just not a total jerk.
JEREMY:
My favourite. He's the older brother who doesn't have a stable job and gets divorced/broken up with a lot even though he's in his thirties (yeesh). In his own way, he's confident in his values, but he isn't the type to tolerate disrespect, and he's very cool. Cool as in steel cool, not popular cool. Even though he never responds to Rachel's letters, it's something she expects because he's not a letter type of guy. He just mostly sends in postcards. But at the end of the book, he and Rachel have a talk and he tells Rachel to keep writing to him because even if he's not a letter guy, he still reads her letters and likes to know what's going on in her life. (awww...)
I have no energy whatsoever to describe anyone else. But I'd like to say that Rachel's parents also have no depth because they're the sensitive old people with hearts of gold and also anxiety, and that's kind of just it.
ATMOSPHERE OF THIS BOOK IN THREE ADJECTIVES (NOT COLOUR CODED)
Cozy, gut-wrenching, heartwarming.
If you like books with these themes, go ahead and read them. If you want to read this book and need outside opinions, like really GENUINELY want to read it, don't take bad opinions to heart. Taste is subjective and you might like what other people DON'T like. Or you can be cautious and just not read it, it's ultimately your choice in the end and I can't influence it in any way.
AGE RATING AND TARGET AUDIENCE
This book is best for 11 and up because the themes are slightly more deep than the themes you would normally see in books for ages below. 11 and up, because there are very mature eleven year olds out there who think deeply, and they're introspective as well. But I don't think this would be very suitable for people below eleven.
I think the target audience for this book were teens, bereaved teens, and bereaved adults. Teens who need to figure themselves out through Rachel, who have self esteem issues. But not every target audience is deeply thought out, so I'll play it safe and say the target audience for this book is an auditorium filled with either lovesick people, or people grieving.
THEMES
Importance of Cherishing Relationships While There's Still Time
Love and Loss
Grief as a Natural Experience
Insecurity of Youth
Figuring Out How to Give Love
Finding Hope Amidst Difficult Times
FINALLY, THIS REVIEW IS OVER. GOODBYE <3
Yes, he's lost weight. He's shrinking. He's smaller. He used to be such a big man. Now I have a little grandfather, a small man in a white hospital gown. His arms are all bones, his eyes stare out of his face."
-an extract
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(YOU CAN SKIP THIS PART IF YOU WANT)
Here's how my system works. It's basically a colour coding system where different colours, obviously, mean different things.
PINK : So, if the title is colour coded pink, colour coding for the aspects of the book won't be used. Pink basically means 'outstandingly executed', and 'completely perfect'. But if the title ISN'T pink, then colour coding for the aspects of the book will be used. There are special cases where my ratings are 4.5 or 4.75, where, in this case, despite the title being pink, colour coding for the numerous aspects will apply.
GREEN : Green means good, or 'well-executed but could've been better'. Green applies to 3.5 or 4 star ratings.
YELLOW : Yellow means 'mid'. You know what mid means. Mediocre, for the boomers. Yellow, for the people who still don't get it, means that I'm generally apathetic toward the book or the aspect, and don't care much for it. It's the code for not very memorable, less well executed but still done in a way that's good enough. (3, 2.5)
RED : Bad, but not entirely. There are some good aspects. (2, 1.5)
GREY : Horrible. Shouldn't have been written. Could've been done better, and everything about this is utter trash. I can't believe this got through publication. I'm concerned. (1, 0.5, 0)
This applies to all books I'm reviewing, whether finished or DNF'd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AFTER THE RAIN (Green, 3.75)
I liked it. It stuck for a while, because of the themes it's exploring. And the themes just so happen to be, drumroll, self-discovery and death. My weaknesses when it comes to these types of books. Yay. Now I have to be sensitive.
You could argue, hey, Little Women has themes of self discovery, why don't you like that? And the Book Thief has themes of death, so why did that irk you? Well, darling, you weren't arguing that and you also couldn't. I don't know what I'm saying either. Little Women has many other themes, and put together, the self discovery element becomes so subtle you can't notice it. And I don't remember anything about the Book Thief, so it seems the death element didn't stick at all.
But this book in particular-- I can remember the plot, somewhat. I can remember how good the emotions were portrayed, because Rachel felt real. Even though she was short, it wasn't her entire personality. She struggled for other reasons than her parents calling her 'mouse' because she was so small. The reasons in question are,
1- her struggles with expressing affection and getting her point across,
2- finding her purpose in general,
3- discovering what it means to be a high school student,
4- how irritated she gets because of how much everyone babies and belittles her,
and 5- relationships. Not always romantic, but it is shown she's worried about whether or not she'll get a boyfriend (spoiler: she does). This book, in the case of relationships, has a heavy emphasis on fraternal relations rather than high school drama. It's a slice of life.
Oops. I went in too deep, and it's only the introduction. Anyway, without further ado, let's hit the enough button and get to the actual review.
THE PLOT (PINK)
A lot of books I've read that weren't five stars for me were either too fast-paced or too slow, or they had too much action/drama or none. My five star/4.5 star books have the perfect balance of the two, and they flesh out dynamics and characters without reducing them to a plot device (we ignore the fact that Annabeth's character throughout PJO is a trope and Grover was abandoned directly after for no particular reason).
Reducing a character to a plot device works a bit like this. So we have our dirt-poor but somehow still immaculately pretty female MC who everyone pushes around and bullies, and she gets so frustrated with her life she gets apathetic to all the bullying somehow, and then we throw in the classic exchange student who's totally her type, but he's super handsome and she's kinda just there. So her main bully befriends him somehow while the MC is super jealous (like about to spontaneously combust type of jealousy). So what the MC does is she decides to give up on her crush rather than win him over with her totally natural charm. Her bully posts an embarrassing video of her or something, and everyone starts laughing at MC again. MC, fed up, decides to get revenge, so she glows up and exposes her main bully, and then gets with our personality-less dude and the story ends on a happy, morally weird note: be pretty and you get duuuuuuuudes.
Notice how our exchange student has no personality besides being gullible and hot and our bully is always trying her best to be a horrible person? Lack of nuance, ka-ching! But do they cause the main conflict? Yep. Do they contribute to the story in such a way where our main character undergoes some personal growth and comes out on top, ending up a horrible role model? Mhm. If they weren't there, we'd have no fuel, actually, we'd have no fire at all.
My argument doesn't make sense, sorry. There could be a counterattack saying, 'but oh, isn't every character a plot device then?' What I'm trying to say is that if you want your plot to be taken seriously and fully enjoyed, you need to explore dynamics and personalities that aren't entirely surface level. There is NOBODY out there whose personality is just being hot. People are complicated (well, not always, but not all of us are the embodiment of cheesy tropes). Kurt and Ram from Heathers are your classic jock, WHICH IS A TROPE, but they're also total jerks at the same time and they're cowards as well so they're not just classic jocks. Veronica would be the classic unpopular girl who gets a glow up and becomes famous, which is a trope, but she does wrong things and her regret for that shows, and she's challenging high school hierarchy. JD isn't just a hot dude, rather he's a conflicted psychopath. Heathers is a high school thing but no character is just a trope.
The problem with this book is how some characters feel very surface level, hence the plot doesn't feel fully developed. The two most pivotal characters are done well, and I liked Rachel's family dynamics being explored, but the problem is with Rachel's parents and friends. I don't exactly see much in them. Not every character can be explored, yes, but you should explore them even a little bit.
Anyway, the plot for this was really nice. It didn't have much action or drama; it was peaceful and serene. It's something you could read about while it's pouring rain, because it isn't creepy and it doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat with your eyes frantically darting to the next paragraph like 'oh my god what's going to happen now'. But, you may ask, how does it keep the reader engaged if there's no drama or action?
Well, darling, for that, we come to the magic of subplots, and FLUFF. The subplot is like, what happens besides the main plot. Like, take the main plot of Frozen (Disney) and then grab Olaf and Kristoff. Olaf's discovery of who he is and Kristoff's tragic pining over Anna aren't exactly important to the main point of Frozen, but they keep you engaged nonetheless. And FLUFF!! Fluff, if you (somehow) don't know, is the wholesome stuff. Percy and Sally's conversations in the Lightning Thief are fluff.
You want a hurt/comfort read? You can grab this.
WRITING STYLE
The writing style is in third person present tense, so like 'Rachel is sitting in the tiny, stifling closet under the stairs with her phone in her lap'. And then combine that with letters and journal entries (first person) and we've got our book.
I like present tenses. They're more fun to read because we're in the moment rather than reading about what happened. This is what is happening appeals to me more than this was what happened. It feels like I'm reading someone's memoir when it's in the past tense for some reason. Especially if the past tense is super formal. But if it isn't, the past tense gets way more bearable, bearable to the point I don't even notice it's in past tense. We're in the moment as things change. I like that.
The journal entries get more personal, and they're interesting to read because it's so clear she's trying to remain unbothered but she's slowly falling apart, and while she's falling apart she's also healing, so there's multiple things happening at once and it's overwhelming her.
The letters are heart warming, to say the very least. It shows she has at least someone to tell stuff to, and even if her brother Jeremy doesn't respond, she still writes to him because she wants him to know about what's going on. It shows the hopeful, giddy, more desperate side of her because she wants a response from her brother quite a lot, and... how do I explain this... it's one-sided fluff.
The writing style, all in all, is more to the simple side, and isn't very descriptive, but emotions and dynamics are handled well and I like it.
CHARACTERS (GREEN)
Finally, we come to the section we've all been waiting for. Or was that just me? Still, we'll need to categorize this because there's a bunch.
RACHEL:
I like Rachel. I relate to her because of her insecurities and her anxiety and also her temper. Her temper is portrayed realistically because hormones are EVERYWHERE and a lot of people my age tend to get overwhelmed and go into fight or flight, where either they cry it out or they get mad. This is what happens with Rachel. She's so overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at the same time, and she's juggling family with friends and schoolwork and a BOYFRIEND, and she's also so anxious, that she bottles it up constantly and when someone opens the bottle, everything spills out and then she gets anxious all over again. She doesn't know anything about her ambitions and goals and what she'll do, and if she'll get a boyfriend. She doesn't know if anyone actually likes her or if she's cool enough or good enough or just ENOUGH. I think she has alexithymia as well.
IZZY:
Diva, literal diva. He's super apathetic and cold and unreachable at first, like 'i don't give a damn' type, but in the end he's proven to genuinely care for people, just not know how to show it, and he just really loves his dead wife. He's the type to tell you you're incompetent and then make you cookies right afterward, and get super apologetic but not apologize because he finds it humiliating. I'm pretty sure he used to be a blacksmith. He also has this thing where he suppresses his emotions and appears all tough and guarded and like he hates you.
LEWIS:
He's super sweet and supportive, and he's a BOY and Rachel finds him attractive and he's positive and uplifting and all that and just the perfect guy, right? Because he's a golden retriever. And we can't forget, he's also anxious and very caring regarding Rachel-related matters, but the problem lies in his depth. I see nothing in him but that. No flaw besides dire predictability. I love Lewis, he and Rachel are really cute, but it would be much cuter if he was more flawed.
HELENA:
She's Rachel's popular girl best friend with all the gossip and drama at her fingertips. She has young parents, and a completely normal family, and she's rich and wants to be an actress. She's had multiple boyfriends, I think, and she's confident in her own beliefs and values. She's also very generally attractive and wants to be an actress. In fact, she's the one who gets Rachel and Lewis into a relationship. She cares for people but comes off as all overconfident and cool which ruins the vibe a bit, but no worries because she IS the vibe. She's like Heather C, just not a total jerk.
JEREMY:
My favourite. He's the older brother who doesn't have a stable job and gets divorced/broken up with a lot even though he's in his thirties (yeesh). In his own way, he's confident in his values, but he isn't the type to tolerate disrespect, and he's very cool. Cool as in steel cool, not popular cool. Even though he never responds to Rachel's letters, it's something she expects because he's not a letter type of guy. He just mostly sends in postcards. But at the end of the book, he and Rachel have a talk and he tells Rachel to keep writing to him because even if he's not a letter guy, he still reads her letters and likes to know what's going on in her life. (awww...)
I have no energy whatsoever to describe anyone else. But I'd like to say that Rachel's parents also have no depth because they're the sensitive old people with hearts of gold and also anxiety, and that's kind of just it.
ATMOSPHERE OF THIS BOOK IN THREE ADJECTIVES (NOT COLOUR CODED)
Cozy, gut-wrenching, heartwarming.
If you like books with these themes, go ahead and read them. If you want to read this book and need outside opinions, like really GENUINELY want to read it, don't take bad opinions to heart. Taste is subjective and you might like what other people DON'T like. Or you can be cautious and just not read it, it's ultimately your choice in the end and I can't influence it in any way.
AGE RATING AND TARGET AUDIENCE
This book is best for 11 and up because the themes are slightly more deep than the themes you would normally see in books for ages below. 11 and up, because there are very mature eleven year olds out there who think deeply, and they're introspective as well. But I don't think this would be very suitable for people below eleven.
I think the target audience for this book were teens, bereaved teens, and bereaved adults. Teens who need to figure themselves out through Rachel, who have self esteem issues. But not every target audience is deeply thought out, so I'll play it safe and say the target audience for this book is an auditorium filled with either lovesick people, or people grieving.
THEMES
Importance of Cherishing Relationships While There's Still Time
Love and Loss
Grief as a Natural Experience
Insecurity of Youth
Figuring Out How to Give Love
Finding Hope Amidst Difficult Times
FINALLY, THIS REVIEW IS OVER. GOODBYE <3
April 28, 2016
If this were written by a 15 year old, I'd say "Nice job! I like how you showed the progression in the relationship between Rachel and her grandfather. That's the part of the book where your writing really shines."
But it wasn't written by a 15 year old (although it often felt that way). It was written by a Newbery Honor author. And I'm left wondering why I had to muddle through page after page about an awkward teenage romance, poorly written characters (aside from the grandfather), and pointless nicknames (Jerems? Really?), cultural references with a feeble attempt to be relevant (Emilio Estevez), and clothing descriptions.
Yes, the heart of the story - Rachel and Izzy - was touching. But if I had read this as a teenager in 1987 I would have given up on the book long before it got to that part.
But it wasn't written by a 15 year old (although it often felt that way). It was written by a Newbery Honor author. And I'm left wondering why I had to muddle through page after page about an awkward teenage romance, poorly written characters (aside from the grandfather), and pointless nicknames (Jerems? Really?), cultural references with a feeble attempt to be relevant (Emilio Estevez), and clothing descriptions.
Yes, the heart of the story - Rachel and Izzy - was touching. But if I had read this as a teenager in 1987 I would have given up on the book long before it got to that part.
March 23, 2019
Loving the unlikeable character.
Rachel is a typical teen. She wants to be like her best friend, funny, happy, popular, and to have a boyfriend. Rachel worries she won't have her first kiss before the time she's 16.
But all these worries pale when compared to the worry of her dying grandfather. Izzy isn't the sweet, kind, stereo-typical grandfather, quite the opposite actually. He's rough, prickly, and sometimes just downright mean. But as Rachel grows throughout this book, so does her love for Izzy, as well as the readers.
Izzy is grumpy and trying, like many people we'll meet in our lives, but this book guides you through the rough parts of Izzy's personality, and shows you the hidden, but beautiful side of this tough Grandfather. After reading this book I looked at the trying people in my life in a new, and more understanding light.
Rachel is a typical teen. She wants to be like her best friend, funny, happy, popular, and to have a boyfriend. Rachel worries she won't have her first kiss before the time she's 16.
But all these worries pale when compared to the worry of her dying grandfather. Izzy isn't the sweet, kind, stereo-typical grandfather, quite the opposite actually. He's rough, prickly, and sometimes just downright mean. But as Rachel grows throughout this book, so does her love for Izzy, as well as the readers.
Izzy is grumpy and trying, like many people we'll meet in our lives, but this book guides you through the rough parts of Izzy's personality, and shows you the hidden, but beautiful side of this tough Grandfather. After reading this book I looked at the trying people in my life in a new, and more understanding light.
October 9, 2014
I first read this book in 2005 and I thought I had no recollection of it. But sometimes a scene would come to mind, of an old man trying to prove he was still strong by lifting up a girl at a birthday party. That scene, so heartbreaking and awkward. And it was from this book.
I used to have no interest in reading YA novels where a grandparent was the central figure, rather than a love interest being the central figure. I have more of an appreciation for this kind of story now than when I was young. The writing was beautiful, the characters and the dialogue refreshingly believable and real.
9/60 tbr box.
I used to have no interest in reading YA novels where a grandparent was the central figure, rather than a love interest being the central figure. I have more of an appreciation for this kind of story now than when I was young. The writing was beautiful, the characters and the dialogue refreshingly believable and real.
9/60 tbr box.
February 23, 2011
I like this book because I really understand how the main character Rachel feels about the relationship between friends and family. She is 15 years old, and she does not have self-confidence. She worried about her appearance and difference from other girls. She eventually fell in love with Lewis. However, she begings to concerns more about her grandfather because she found that he has ill. After I finished reading this book, I learned that family is really important to my life. This book is very enjoyable because all the setting is believable, not fantasy. I think many girls can feel sympathy with Rachel's feeling. Therefore I recommend this book to espesially teenage girls.
October 27, 2009
This book made me extremely happy. It was a normal relateable plotline, with normal, relateable characters, in a normal relateable town. Usually, this would infuriate me to no end, but curiously, I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were perfectly relateable. The relationships and the ending of the story were very nice and easy, not to sugary sweet like some stories like this tend to be.
Good book overall.
Good book overall.
August 4, 2016
قراتها قبل اكثر من عشرين سنة ومازالت أحداثها وشخصياتها في مخيلتي كانني قراتها البارحة.. اروع ما قرأت حينها ومن روائع ما قرأت الان .. اُسلوب الرواية سهل ممتنع.. حياة يومية لعائلة كبيرة تعيش في شقة صغيرة في وسط مدينة.. احداث كل يوم تعيشها معها وخصوصا مع جيني بطلة القصة .. يمكن القول عنها انها رواية كل يوم وتشعر معها انك تعيش حياة اخرى حال تقليبك لصفحات الكتاب
May 4, 2012
I had to read this book for school and it didn't wow me. I found the main character to be a bit annoying and truthfully rather insufferable at times. If it wasn't for school I would have never picked it up.
April 10, 2022
A parent's Book Review
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.
2/5 stars
After the Rain,
Norma Fox Mazer
"Not all that relatable for young sons"
This was a Newberry book and I had been going through several Newberry books so that I had things to give to my sons to read later on that I had already pre-read (to make sure that it was kosher / clean).
It turns out that winning a newbery award is an imperfect predictor of how good a book will be. (It's kind of the opposite of how Oprah's Book club endorsement is an imperfect predictor of a book that will be trash.)
I have to say that this book only took one day to read, and I'm even sorry that I wasted that much time.
∆∆∆The first problem is that there are a lot of things that are factually wrong/not consistent with medical treatment today.
1. When a patient is dying, it is emphatically not the case that the doctor tells everyone except him. (I think everybody has noticed that every time you go to the doctor you have to fill out a telephone book of HIPAA privacy paperwork.)
2. No, doctors are not people that you can just call up anytime you need to talk to them and they drop everything and come running.
3. End of life issues are treated by hospice, and if the exact same events of the book happened today-- then that is exactly where Grandpa would have been.
∆∆∆There were also some problems with the philosophical points of the book:
1. The family was a bunch of non-Jewish Jews.
To an insider, there are clues all over the place - - even though the author does not specifically come out and say it until probably about page 154.
-Nobody modifies their life in any way on a Saturday.
-People serve a dinner of chicken with sour cream and potatoes. (Oops)
-The grandfather is cremated at the end of his life.
If you want your children to stay observant and you want to give them positive images of an observant family, you will not find that in this book.
2. The book has a family that just has way too much melodrama going on. I get sick of books where characters have the same issues as 40-year-old triply divorced alcoholics - - even though they may only be 15. (This book was written 34 years ago, but it is the harbinger of what passes as young adult fiction today.)
Everybody who raises a number of children has some number of difficulties, and you don't need to read a book to hear about imaginary / someone else's difficulties.
3. I'm raising sons, and this book has an excessively chick-ish feel to it.
4. The book is too far back in time for any of the details to make the book relatable.
∆∆∆There were some plausibility problems.
1. A 15-year-old has nothing like a relationship with this surly grandfather, and then all of a sudden when he's going to die then they become best friends in the world.
2. This is not the normative Jewish way to deal with death. (In the Orthodox conceptual space, death is just a part of life and dealt with in a matter of fact way; When people die, the funeral and burial are completed within 24 hours and services usually take about 30 minutes.)
3. The protagonist does a lot of whining about not having a boyfriend. (It's almost like she doesn't realize that Jewish women are at the top of the dating market and don't have to wait for anybody.)
4. She has friends and hang out with her and an 83-year-old grandfather because of course any 15-year-old is going to put all of her friends aside in order to do just that so they figure that if they want her contact then maybe they better come for a visit.
The last problem is that the book kept switching back and forth between first and third person.
Aggravating.
I think that any of the Beverly cleary Leigh Botts bildungsroman are more relatable. Or, maybe anything by Gary Paulsen.
Verdict:
Not recommended.
Save your time.
This book is going to be donated to the library within the next several hours.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2023
Read for Newbery club, notes below copied from the comments there.
I am particularly enjoying the fact that Rachel seems unlikeable at first, self-centered, immature, hormonal. Too many books marketed to tweens and young teens these days have such precociously insightful young characters that it's clear that it's the author's way of communicating what the young readers should see in the situation. But as we read about Rachel, we learn *with* her all the insights, all the growth of understanding other's perspectives. She is maturing into a very nice young woman... though still being a very realistic teen.
There are lots of things to discuss about the book, too.
For example, what is going on with Jeremy? The book is apparently set contemporary with publication (1987) so do we readers think that he should 'get over' his experiences in Vietnam (not discussed), or is there another reason he's so distant?
How would you interpret Jeremy's behavior or character?
For another example, should a very old terminally ill person be told how much time they have left? Izzy is not being given a chance to do anything like write legacy letters, give away his mementos to the people of his choice, accomplish anything on his bucket list, burn his secrets.... Obviously I think he should he should have been told. Of course, he didn't ask....
What do you think?
---
Done.
It just got more and more interesting to me. I have no idea what I would have thought when I was a young girl. But I do recommend it to all of you.
I am particularly enjoying the fact that Rachel seems unlikeable at first, self-centered, immature, hormonal. Too many books marketed to tweens and young teens these days have such precociously insightful young characters that it's clear that it's the author's way of communicating what the young readers should see in the situation. But as we read about Rachel, we learn *with* her all the insights, all the growth of understanding other's perspectives. She is maturing into a very nice young woman... though still being a very realistic teen.
There are lots of things to discuss about the book, too.
For example, what is going on with Jeremy? The book is apparently set contemporary with publication (1987) so do we readers think that he should 'get over' his experiences in Vietnam (not discussed), or is there another reason he's so distant?
How would you interpret Jeremy's behavior or character?
For another example, should a very old terminally ill person be told how much time they have left? Izzy is not being given a chance to do anything like write legacy letters, give away his mementos to the people of his choice, accomplish anything on his bucket list, burn his secrets.... Obviously I think he should he should have been told. Of course, he didn't ask....
What do you think?
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Done.
It just got more and more interesting to me. I have no idea what I would have thought when I was a young girl. But I do recommend it to all of you.
August 5, 2017
This 1988 Newbery Honor book is the story of teenaged Rachel who has all of the problems of a 15 year old girl and then some. Rachel was written very well, typically insecure about just about everything and as rebellious as she dared to be. The main thrust of the story is the relationship, or lack therof, between herself and her crusty old grandfather. When he develops terminal Mesothelioma Rachel becomes his unwilling caregiver. As time goes on, predictably, grandpa becomes less crusty and Rachel develops a strong emotional relationship with him. Mazer examines all of Rachel's feelings; her emerging love for her grandfather, her curiosity, her anger, her grief, her confusion, everything she feels before, during, and after her grandfather's death. It would have been a very touching story had Mazer stayed focused on just that aspect of Rachel's life.
Unfortunately too many other characters were drawn into the story and as a result there were too many loose threads and unfinished story lines when all was said and done. It was just, and more to the point, unnecessarily, all over the place.
After the Rain is probably too dated for today's young readers but it is a good story with a valuable moral lesson - it's never too late to develop familial relationships and how much those relationships can teach you about yourself and those close to you. The rest of the characters might have made a good sequel.
Unfortunately too many other characters were drawn into the story and as a result there were too many loose threads and unfinished story lines when all was said and done. It was just, and more to the point, unnecessarily, all over the place.
After the Rain is probably too dated for today's young readers but it is a good story with a valuable moral lesson - it's never too late to develop familial relationships and how much those relationships can teach you about yourself and those close to you. The rest of the characters might have made a good sequel.
Read
January 3, 2020Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and everything.
This one surprised me, actually. First off, let’s get this out of the way. The cover is awful. While the 80s fashions are hilarious, it looks like Rachel is about to be kidnapped. It also doesn’t suit the book at all.
However, this is pretty good. The book is a combination of third person present tense narration and letters and journal entries (obviously in first person). Third person present tense is a little odd, honestly, but you get used to it after a while. And this is a little dated, and there’s occasionally some language that at the time was fine, but has since become offensive.
But despite that, it’s a good book. It talks about death in a very franky and emotionally honest way. Rachel and her family are also Jewish, which is cool. I’m actually going to keep this one, because I liked it, and I honestly think that you could reprint this one and put it out with a new cover and it’d be cool.
This one surprised me, actually. First off, let’s get this out of the way. The cover is awful. While the 80s fashions are hilarious, it looks like Rachel is about to be kidnapped. It also doesn’t suit the book at all.
However, this is pretty good. The book is a combination of third person present tense narration and letters and journal entries (obviously in first person). Third person present tense is a little odd, honestly, but you get used to it after a while. And this is a little dated, and there’s occasionally some language that at the time was fine, but has since become offensive.
But despite that, it’s a good book. It talks about death in a very franky and emotionally honest way. Rachel and her family are also Jewish, which is cool. I’m actually going to keep this one, because I liked it, and I honestly think that you could reprint this one and put it out with a new cover and it’d be cool.
March 13, 2020
This is a very good book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read what life is all about. This book explores the life of a fifteen year old who wants to grow up and be an author. She wants to inspire others, but she worries. She has a whole lot of worries for a whole lot of invalid reasons. She worries about what her family thinks of her, after all she is the youngest by a lot. She worries of what other people outside her family think of her. Whether she looks cute enough or her clothes aren’t to flashy. She worries about every detail of her life. This book tells a story that could be realistic, because don’t we all have worries, self doubts and other point less thoughts. That’s what makes us human. This book made me realize the beauty of life and how it doesn’t matter what others think. As we go through our are daily lives things happen. In After the Rain, Rachel has a sick grandpa who is stubborn. She loves him and wants the best for him and her family. Once again brings us to real life. He changes her life, and for the better. It’s everyday life events that make us enjoy the little things. Our choices decide our destiny, so what are you gonna do to make life better?
April 21, 2021
This book was hard for me to get into. However, after reading and getting tied into the characters and their emotions I loved it. This story can be extremely relatable for adolescents who have lost a grandparent. The theme I really pick up on is to never leave anything unsaid or not fixed, don’t take your family and the time blessed with for granted. I know that I definitely relate! I lost two of my grandparents and there’s so many things I wish I could go back to and really live in those moments, not taking them for granted. This story uses several literary devices: flashback, imagery, similes, metaphors, symbolism.
Rachel Cooper is a young teenager who worries about her dating life and the lack of experience she has. However, she is extremely intelligent and loves writing. She writes several letters to her brother Jeremy who she barely knows. He never writes back but will send her a post card every three years or so. She also has another brother, a niece, a nephew, two loving parents, and a difficult grandfather. However, when her grandfather Izzy becomes extremely sick with mesothelioma, she begins walking with him everyday after a terrible fall. At first, this is the last way Rachel would prefer to spend her time. She just began dating her best friend’s boyfriend’s cousin Lewis Olswanger. As she continues to do this for months, she realizes she wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves spending time with her grandfather and is so concerned about his well being. Sadly, as Dr. North predicted, he got much weaker and his time was coming to an end. Rachel developed such a strong bond with him she never had in previous years for she was so scared of him. When the time of his passing came, she and her family were extremely devastated but thankful for the time they had. His passing brings everyone back together and Rachel gets to spend some time with Jeremy and talk about the letters she’s been writing to him. He tells her that he loves them, he doesn’t just toss them away. Jeremy just isn’t the type to write back. Then, at the end, Rachel and Lewis begin looking for Izzy’s handprint he left on one of the bridges he told Rachel about several years ago when he was an employed stonemason. After much dedication they finally find it. Izzy’s handprint that would I always reside there and have his initials. A special piece of him.
Rachel Cooper is a young teenager who worries about her dating life and the lack of experience she has. However, she is extremely intelligent and loves writing. She writes several letters to her brother Jeremy who she barely knows. He never writes back but will send her a post card every three years or so. She also has another brother, a niece, a nephew, two loving parents, and a difficult grandfather. However, when her grandfather Izzy becomes extremely sick with mesothelioma, she begins walking with him everyday after a terrible fall. At first, this is the last way Rachel would prefer to spend her time. She just began dating her best friend’s boyfriend’s cousin Lewis Olswanger. As she continues to do this for months, she realizes she wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves spending time with her grandfather and is so concerned about his well being. Sadly, as Dr. North predicted, he got much weaker and his time was coming to an end. Rachel developed such a strong bond with him she never had in previous years for she was so scared of him. When the time of his passing came, she and her family were extremely devastated but thankful for the time they had. His passing brings everyone back together and Rachel gets to spend some time with Jeremy and talk about the letters she’s been writing to him. He tells her that he loves them, he doesn’t just toss them away. Jeremy just isn’t the type to write back. Then, at the end, Rachel and Lewis begin looking for Izzy’s handprint he left on one of the bridges he told Rachel about several years ago when he was an employed stonemason. After much dedication they finally find it. Izzy’s handprint that would I always reside there and have his initials. A special piece of him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2020
This book won the Newberry Honor award, but honestly, I almost gave up on it in the middle. It was so slow, and the characters didn’t seem realistic to me. Part of this might be that the dialogue and actions of the characters seemed rather dated. I don’t think it transitioned well through the years. This book deals with a teenage girl getting to know her grandfather during his terminal illness and death. While that part is beautifully written, I think you would almost have had to experience the death of someone close to get the full emotion the author was trying to convey. I did end up liking the book okay after pushing past the midway point, but I doubt if I would recommend this to any young people I know.
January 11, 2023
Read for Popsugar: a book by a female author
Newbery Honor 1988
Meh? I was just saying how I'm trying to stop reading books I'm not enjoying, but that directly clashes with my goal of reading all the Newbery honor and award books because of some of these older ones, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out, haha.
It was okay. Imperfect characters almost to the point of unlikeable. The boyfriend was descibed as looking like Abraham Lincoln which made me even more diappointed in the misleading cover. I demand Abraham Lincoln! Oh gosh, I just realized Grandpa is sitting on a bench in the background. I never noticed - I'm terrible.
Newbery Honor 1988
Meh? I was just saying how I'm trying to stop reading books I'm not enjoying, but that directly clashes with my goal of reading all the Newbery honor and award books because of some of these older ones, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out, haha.
It was okay. Imperfect characters almost to the point of unlikeable. The boyfriend was descibed as looking like Abraham Lincoln which made me even more diappointed in the misleading cover. I demand Abraham Lincoln! Oh gosh, I just realized Grandpa is sitting on a bench in the background. I never noticed - I'm terrible.
December 7, 2016
This is a quiet, sweet story about a teenage girl and her relationships with her parents, her best friend, and her grandfather. I didn't care about some of the characters until quite far into the story, but by the end I really cared about them all. It wasn't as much about her relationship with a new boyfriend as I thought it would be based on the cover picture. But I should know by now that you can't depend on cover pictures to let you know what the story is about!
This was a Newbery Honor winner in 1988.
This was a Newbery Honor winner in 1988.
June 29, 2023
This book is early YA, when there's an understanding that YA is it's own thing, but not a separate award yet. It has an after-school special feeling to it, and felt a little clunky to me. I think there are better YA books from this era. This was a good story, though. Touching, about a girl losing her grandfather and the development of their relationship.
June 28, 2017
This, this book was amazing and sad. It is now one of my favorite books ever. The way that Ms Mazer captured the real,True emotions of a teenager was indescribable in a good way. If you like this I suggest reading A Begonia for Miss Applebaum by Paul Zindel. Just remember to bring the tissues.
July 20, 2017
An intense story about dealing with a loved one dying, written from the perspective of a teenage girl, who is also going through her own transition into adulthood. Somewhat melancholy, of course, but probably a good conversation starter when broaching the forbidden topic of how to handle death.
June 27, 2017
Really sweet book. Good story line. Good read especially for preteens to young adult.
July 3, 2017
I'm so glad I decided to pick up this book in my school library. I love old books with plots like these. This book needs to be read by more people. I know many people would love it. Amazing read.
August 15, 2017
I liked this story just fine. There are many reviews. I direct you to those. I can see why this won an honor.
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