Everywhere

by Bruce Brooks

The deep bond between a boy and his grandfather may be the only thing that can save the old man's life when he suffers a heart attack. But first the boy must overcome his feelings of helplessness and guilt. With the imaginative assistance of Dooley, the nephew of a local nurse who knows a mysterious ritual called "soul switching," the narrator discovers, in a reluctant flight to the farthest edges of faith, the miraculous and healing power of love. In the best literary tradition of Truman Capote and Carson McCullers, award-winning novelist Bruce Brooks tells this spellbinding tale with a compassionate understanding of the capacity of children to transcend pain with amazing grace.

Genres: Young Adult

80 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Bruce Brooks (born September 23, 1950) is an American author of young adult and children's literature. He was born in Washington D.C., but spent most of his time growing up in North Carolina as a result of parents' being divorced. Although divorce is never easy for a child, Brooks credits moving around a lot between the two locations with making him a keen observer of social situations. Switching schools often and having to make new friends evolved his ability to tell good stories. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1980. Before earning a living as a writer, Brooks had worked as a letterpress operator and a journalist for magazines and newspapers. Brooks has reported a very diverse list of influences, like Charles Dickens, Henry James, P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler. Brooks has three sons: Alex, 23, Spencer, 15, and Drake, 1. He lives with his wife Ginee Seo in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical, wonderful book about a child's attempt to understand death.

[rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird upload of cover tbh

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

"When a man gets to a certain spot and it strikes his fancy, he takes it on into his soul, see. It becomes his."

—Dooley Pettibone, "Everywhere", P. 23

This book has a very offbeat tone and feel about it. The main character talks in a way that is almost stiff, yet it works for his character. The plot is dotted throughout by some unexpected but tender moments, and the conclusion and surrounding facts about the conclusion are interesting, and thought-provoking, for sure.
"Everywhere" is most definitely not your average book, but I am glad to have read it, and it has interested me in seeing more of Bruce Brooks's material in the near future. This book is only seventy pages in length, and I wonder what he is capable of doing in a longer tome.

[Falina · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange little book. It's for children, but the language is for adults and the subject matter is really too complex for children to understand. I'm not sure that *I* understand. I get the central idea is that we are all one or "everywhere"--but that realization doesn't seem to help Peanuts cope with the idea of death. The theme of "everywhere" or unity plays out in a more cohesive way if you think about the two boys from different races/different sides of town who bond through a universal experience (death). If you stretch it, you could say the "soul switch" that took place is between the two boys, when Peanuts watches Dooley in church at the end of the book.

[Kayne Ronspies · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book to me was kind of hard to follow. It wasn't a bad book, but I have read better. Not my favorite book, but would still recommend to anyone looking to read an easy book that wasn't hundreds of pages long.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grades 3+. Afraid that his grandfather will die after suffering a heart attack, a 9-year-old agrees to join a friend in performing a mysterious ritual called soul switching.

[Anjanique · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was confusing, but oddly satisfying. The ending was okay, I was expecting the father to die in the end, which would've been even more satisfying.