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This Side of the Sky
Mona and Bird witness something terrible from their treetop perches and suddenly life changes forever.
On this side of the sky, Mona and her kid sister, Bird, hide in the woods each day because it's far better than being home. But then there's the other side, the side Bird dreams of while she sits in the tall trees she climbs to get away from a life devoid of love. Bird may be eight, but her mind's only five, and Mona has to babysit her most of the time. All their father can do when he gets home is lie on the couch and watch TV, and with another baby on the way, it seems like Mona's mother is always too occupied with her own problems and misery to pay any attention to her.
They don't have many friends, but Mona and Bird have always had each other and the hideout of the hidden lake to run to when they needed to escape from mothers and fathers and teachers and bullies and the friends they want and the friends who need their help. But then Mona and Bird witness something terrible in the woods, and suddenly life changes forever for Mona and the others trapped on this side of the sky.
Written from Mona's perspective, this translation of a Governor General's Literary Award-nominee and winner of the PRIX DU LIVRE M. CHRISTIE explores themes of racism, sexual abuse, low self-esteem and the pain all these inflict on those who deserve it least.
Due to more mature content, this book is recommended for children 14 and up. IBBY Honour List (Translation French to English), 2008
CCBC's Best Books for Kids and Teens, 2008 "Starred Choice"
On this side of the sky, Mona and her kid sister, Bird, hide in the woods each day because it's far better than being home. But then there's the other side, the side Bird dreams of while she sits in the tall trees she climbs to get away from a life devoid of love. Bird may be eight, but her mind's only five, and Mona has to babysit her most of the time. All their father can do when he gets home is lie on the couch and watch TV, and with another baby on the way, it seems like Mona's mother is always too occupied with her own problems and misery to pay any attention to her.
They don't have many friends, but Mona and Bird have always had each other and the hideout of the hidden lake to run to when they needed to escape from mothers and fathers and teachers and bullies and the friends they want and the friends who need their help. But then Mona and Bird witness something terrible in the woods, and suddenly life changes forever for Mona and the others trapped on this side of the sky.
Written from Mona's perspective, this translation of a Governor General's Literary Award-nominee and winner of the PRIX DU LIVRE M. CHRISTIE explores themes of racism, sexual abuse, low self-esteem and the pain all these inflict on those who deserve it least.
Due to more mature content, this book is recommended for children 14 and up. IBBY Honour List (Translation French to English), 2008
CCBC's Best Books for Kids and Teens, 2008 "Starred Choice"
- GenresFiction
112 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 8, 2009
What a find! Marie-Francine Hebert is not afraid to tackle – appropriately, in this young-adult novel – difficult subjects such as prejudice, racism and sexual abuse. While these topics could be disturbing, Hebert tempers such themes with her unique, poetic prose; and by offering her characters the opportunity to develop self-esteem, self-reliance – and hope.
You know those book sales that happen in a mall or outside your local library? Well, just recently, I came across one in the process of being set up. I had two cloth bags – my intention was to fill them with the books waiting for me on “my section” of the book-request shelf inside the library. The sale wasn’t to begin until the following morning, but the volunteers graciously allowed me to rummage through, as they unpacked box after box of books. After quickly filling one bag, I asked how much they were asking: 50 cents for paperbacks and a loonie ($1) for hardcover! The slim volume titled this side of the sky [no caps:] caught my eye: I loved the title and the cover, and Hebert was a new-to-me author from Quebec. I didn’t even realize it was a young-adult book until I read the first few pages, but by then I was hooked.
The novel opens with a poem written by teen narrator Mona, a homework assignment: address normal events that happen at home on a day off school. It’s a clever beginning, because right away we know that Mom expects Mona to look after her younger sister Angelique – who insists upon being called Bird, because she prefers to spend her time at the top of trees – and that Dad isn’t a particularly nurturing parent either: he sits in front of the TV drinking beer, and says to Mona, You deaf, girl? Beat it! We soon learn that Mom is pregnant and we guess that she’s worried she will bear another child like Bird, the baby who didn’t receive enough oxygen at birth, and who, according to Dad, was born with a sparrow's brain. To others, she is more like a five-year-old in an eight-year-old body. But Bird senses things, and she possesses keen observation skills.
Two classmates live nearby. Mona doesn’t like Suson, the daughter of the mayor and police chief, but she does like newcomer Jon, an African-American boy. One day Bird shows Mona a scene Bird has seen before: the police chief sexually abusing his daughter. Mona insists they can’t tell the police, because Suson’s father is the police. When Suson is found after running away, it is Jon, predictably, who ends up getting accused. But this is a simplified synopsis of the plot, and it would be a discredit to Hebert’s talent to dismiss it as just another story dealing with the same old themes.
I love it when chapters are titled. In the first: “the hidden lake”, Bird says that the lake is one of earth’s eyes. Because the lake is rotting, Mona says, “With an eye that full of slime, the earth can’t recognize many people.” In the chapter called “parents and other animals”, Mona and Bird secretly watch Jon leave for a weekend visit with his father. His mother’s heart is full of him. The girls kneel behind the bush in pieces. Mona can’t imagine her mother’s heart being full of her. She knows Bird can’t either: We stay on our knees for two days behind that same bush. Not in the flesh, of course. In our minds. We don’t dare look at each other, Angelique and me. It’s like when you’re hurt, as soon as you see your hurt reflected in someone else’s eyes, there’s no longer any room for doubt and your pain explodes. In “the lake’s arms”, Mona goes through the woods to the hidden lake, making sure to avoid Jon’s house. There’s too much joy down his way. Later, they’re at his house and a whisper of music makes its way through the open doorway... A whisper of music the trees hereabouts have never heard before. The leaves stand still on their branches… “I’m flowing inside,” murmurs Bird, like the creek into the arms of the lake. The teacher had given Mona 0/10 for her poem, but Jon said it was beautiful. In “the story we didn’t choose”, they find Jon’s book, Les Contemplations by Victor Hugo, and Mona reads a poem aloud to Bird. It refers to a child as a small joyous creature. This is too much for the girls to take in, especially Bird, who falls into the huge puddle of nothingness at her center. Mona throws the book and everything it holds into the woods as far away as possible. “I told you, Bird, it’s got nothing to do with us." But in the end, it will.
One of my favourite passages is when Suson has run away, and Jon is in hiding after being beat up by the two "Sigouin blockheads": The light’s shining louder than usual in all three houses, a blaring light that can be heard from a long way away. At Jon’s house, no music is playing, just the shadow of his mother pushing light from one room to the next, wearing a hole in the window, shaking the phone to make it ring.
Key to the story is Bird recognizing that Suson, though otherwise pretty, has dead fish eyes. And when Bird climbs a tree so high no one can get her down, insisting it wasn’t Jon who “did it”, the teacher tells Mona about being the first to discover her. She says she’d asked Bird what she was staring at: ‘At your dead fish eyes’, and then, ‘I want to see you cry.’ And the teacher did cry; and that’s when Bird told her about Suson and her father. Later, with everyone assembled below the tree, Mona and the teacher tell the truth, Suson says it wasn’t Jon, and Suson’s father is taken away. And Jon is the one to get Bird down from the tree.
I won’t disclose anything further – and there is more to this story – but I will say this: in the final chapter called, “an unconditional present”, I laughed out loud, and by the time I read the final line, I thought it was the perfect ending to this extremely moving, beautifully written story.
Marie-Francine Hebert’s books have been translated into eleven languages. Our library has fifteen copies of this book. Chances are, you will find a copy in yours. I highly recommend this side of the sky for teens and adults around the world.
You know those book sales that happen in a mall or outside your local library? Well, just recently, I came across one in the process of being set up. I had two cloth bags – my intention was to fill them with the books waiting for me on “my section” of the book-request shelf inside the library. The sale wasn’t to begin until the following morning, but the volunteers graciously allowed me to rummage through, as they unpacked box after box of books. After quickly filling one bag, I asked how much they were asking: 50 cents for paperbacks and a loonie ($1) for hardcover! The slim volume titled this side of the sky [no caps:] caught my eye: I loved the title and the cover, and Hebert was a new-to-me author from Quebec. I didn’t even realize it was a young-adult book until I read the first few pages, but by then I was hooked.
The novel opens with a poem written by teen narrator Mona, a homework assignment: address normal events that happen at home on a day off school. It’s a clever beginning, because right away we know that Mom expects Mona to look after her younger sister Angelique – who insists upon being called Bird, because she prefers to spend her time at the top of trees – and that Dad isn’t a particularly nurturing parent either: he sits in front of the TV drinking beer, and says to Mona, You deaf, girl? Beat it! We soon learn that Mom is pregnant and we guess that she’s worried she will bear another child like Bird, the baby who didn’t receive enough oxygen at birth, and who, according to Dad, was born with a sparrow's brain. To others, she is more like a five-year-old in an eight-year-old body. But Bird senses things, and she possesses keen observation skills.
Two classmates live nearby. Mona doesn’t like Suson, the daughter of the mayor and police chief, but she does like newcomer Jon, an African-American boy. One day Bird shows Mona a scene Bird has seen before: the police chief sexually abusing his daughter. Mona insists they can’t tell the police, because Suson’s father is the police. When Suson is found after running away, it is Jon, predictably, who ends up getting accused. But this is a simplified synopsis of the plot, and it would be a discredit to Hebert’s talent to dismiss it as just another story dealing with the same old themes.
I love it when chapters are titled. In the first: “the hidden lake”, Bird says that the lake is one of earth’s eyes. Because the lake is rotting, Mona says, “With an eye that full of slime, the earth can’t recognize many people.” In the chapter called “parents and other animals”, Mona and Bird secretly watch Jon leave for a weekend visit with his father. His mother’s heart is full of him. The girls kneel behind the bush in pieces. Mona can’t imagine her mother’s heart being full of her. She knows Bird can’t either: We stay on our knees for two days behind that same bush. Not in the flesh, of course. In our minds. We don’t dare look at each other, Angelique and me. It’s like when you’re hurt, as soon as you see your hurt reflected in someone else’s eyes, there’s no longer any room for doubt and your pain explodes. In “the lake’s arms”, Mona goes through the woods to the hidden lake, making sure to avoid Jon’s house. There’s too much joy down his way. Later, they’re at his house and a whisper of music makes its way through the open doorway... A whisper of music the trees hereabouts have never heard before. The leaves stand still on their branches… “I’m flowing inside,” murmurs Bird, like the creek into the arms of the lake. The teacher had given Mona 0/10 for her poem, but Jon said it was beautiful. In “the story we didn’t choose”, they find Jon’s book, Les Contemplations by Victor Hugo, and Mona reads a poem aloud to Bird. It refers to a child as a small joyous creature. This is too much for the girls to take in, especially Bird, who falls into the huge puddle of nothingness at her center. Mona throws the book and everything it holds into the woods as far away as possible. “I told you, Bird, it’s got nothing to do with us." But in the end, it will.
One of my favourite passages is when Suson has run away, and Jon is in hiding after being beat up by the two "Sigouin blockheads": The light’s shining louder than usual in all three houses, a blaring light that can be heard from a long way away. At Jon’s house, no music is playing, just the shadow of his mother pushing light from one room to the next, wearing a hole in the window, shaking the phone to make it ring.
Key to the story is Bird recognizing that Suson, though otherwise pretty, has dead fish eyes. And when Bird climbs a tree so high no one can get her down, insisting it wasn’t Jon who “did it”, the teacher tells Mona about being the first to discover her. She says she’d asked Bird what she was staring at: ‘At your dead fish eyes’, and then, ‘I want to see you cry.’ And the teacher did cry; and that’s when Bird told her about Suson and her father. Later, with everyone assembled below the tree, Mona and the teacher tell the truth, Suson says it wasn’t Jon, and Suson’s father is taken away. And Jon is the one to get Bird down from the tree.
I won’t disclose anything further – and there is more to this story – but I will say this: in the final chapter called, “an unconditional present”, I laughed out loud, and by the time I read the final line, I thought it was the perfect ending to this extremely moving, beautifully written story.
Marie-Francine Hebert’s books have been translated into eleven languages. Our library has fifteen copies of this book. Chances are, you will find a copy in yours. I highly recommend this side of the sky for teens and adults around the world.
April 27, 2020
Très, très émue par cette histoire à la poésie crue et terrible qui ne baisse pas les yeux devant les horreurs qui parcourent parfois les chemins. Une écriture incroyable, brute et d'une beauté saisissante.
January 1, 2020
Un tout petit livre en stature mais rempli de beaux personnages et de sujets qui ne se retrouvent pas souvent dans une lecture jeunesse (YA). Belle découverte. 4/5
May 11, 2014
This book is about girls named Mona and Bird. When Bird was born she lost some oxygen to her brain so she has some special needs but Mona loved her. Bids real name is Angelique, but she is called bird because she wishes she could fly and so she's always climbing trees to touch the sky.
One day Mona and Bird witness their neighbor Susan and her father doing things he shouldn't be doing behind their shed. Mona makes Bird promise not to tell anyone what they had just seen because no one would believe them anyways. Susan's father was a police officer, and who would believe two girls over him.
When Mona goes for a walk trying to forget the images that are in her head she heads down to the water fall near their place and finds a boy named Jon who is african american naked swimming. When he realizes that she's seen him he apologizes and is completely embarrassed, but she is also curious at the same time. Her father is racist so she has never spent much time with them before. She then notices Bird is up in the tree again, and she refuses to come down for Mona. (After Jon is dressed) he offers to see if he can help to get Bird to come down. Mona is surprised to see that Bird actually listens to him and comes down from the tree. She feels a little bit of jealousy when she sees Bird is holding his hand on the way back home. Mona doesn't know if she the lake will ever be the same to her. She always had it in her mind that, the lake was their secret place to be and now that Jon knows it wont be the same.
Bird has a hard time to keep this big secret, she ends up telling her teacher. It was too much for her to handle alone.
Mona and Birds, mom is pregnant and is due to have a baby. Mona believes for sure that she's having a boy this time.
When Mona, bird and their mom go out for something, their truck ends up swerving off of the road and heads down a slope in to the lake. They next thing they realize they wake up in the hospital but luckily everyone including mom and baby are fine.
Bird really likes to be around Jon and Mona likes Jon. One day Bird and Mona end up at Jon's house and Mona is really wanting to go so she tells Bird if she doesn't leave now that she's going to tell their mother and they will be in trouble. So they leave.
There are these boys that go to Mona's school who have started really bothering her, and has gone to the point where they stopped her on her way home from school and tore off all of her clothes, Jon was walking home as well and when he witnessed this he stopped them.
Susan on day ends up missing, and her father and all of the police are out on a search for her. When they find her, she is hurt and clothes torn. Susan lies and says that it was Jon that did this to her and he is almost arrested, until Mona steps up and tells the police what her and bird witnessed her Susan's father doing to her. When Susan was asked again who did it to her, she told the truth and said that it was her father. As soon as Susan stepped up they knew that her father had lied about Jon as well. That he'd being telling the truth the whole time.
Mona and Jon really start to have feeling for each other despite Mona's father's opinion of him. He tries to prevent her from going on walks with Jon but her mother always says its ok.
Mona and Susan were never close but after this incident with her father Mona starts to see Susan in a different way and maybe she isn't as bad as she thought. When she gets to Susan's, Susan is shocked to see Mona, but in a good way. She was hoping that Mona would want to start a friendship.
One day Mona and Bird witness their neighbor Susan and her father doing things he shouldn't be doing behind their shed. Mona makes Bird promise not to tell anyone what they had just seen because no one would believe them anyways. Susan's father was a police officer, and who would believe two girls over him.
When Mona goes for a walk trying to forget the images that are in her head she heads down to the water fall near their place and finds a boy named Jon who is african american naked swimming. When he realizes that she's seen him he apologizes and is completely embarrassed, but she is also curious at the same time. Her father is racist so she has never spent much time with them before. She then notices Bird is up in the tree again, and she refuses to come down for Mona. (After Jon is dressed) he offers to see if he can help to get Bird to come down. Mona is surprised to see that Bird actually listens to him and comes down from the tree. She feels a little bit of jealousy when she sees Bird is holding his hand on the way back home. Mona doesn't know if she the lake will ever be the same to her. She always had it in her mind that, the lake was their secret place to be and now that Jon knows it wont be the same.
Bird has a hard time to keep this big secret, she ends up telling her teacher. It was too much for her to handle alone.
Mona and Birds, mom is pregnant and is due to have a baby. Mona believes for sure that she's having a boy this time.
When Mona, bird and their mom go out for something, their truck ends up swerving off of the road and heads down a slope in to the lake. They next thing they realize they wake up in the hospital but luckily everyone including mom and baby are fine.
Bird really likes to be around Jon and Mona likes Jon. One day Bird and Mona end up at Jon's house and Mona is really wanting to go so she tells Bird if she doesn't leave now that she's going to tell their mother and they will be in trouble. So they leave.
There are these boys that go to Mona's school who have started really bothering her, and has gone to the point where they stopped her on her way home from school and tore off all of her clothes, Jon was walking home as well and when he witnessed this he stopped them.
Susan on day ends up missing, and her father and all of the police are out on a search for her. When they find her, she is hurt and clothes torn. Susan lies and says that it was Jon that did this to her and he is almost arrested, until Mona steps up and tells the police what her and bird witnessed her Susan's father doing to her. When Susan was asked again who did it to her, she told the truth and said that it was her father. As soon as Susan stepped up they knew that her father had lied about Jon as well. That he'd being telling the truth the whole time.
Mona and Jon really start to have feeling for each other despite Mona's father's opinion of him. He tries to prevent her from going on walks with Jon but her mother always says its ok.
Mona and Susan were never close but after this incident with her father Mona starts to see Susan in a different way and maybe she isn't as bad as she thought. When she gets to Susan's, Susan is shocked to see Mona, but in a good way. She was hoping that Mona would want to start a friendship.
October 8, 2010
I discovered this little book at a library sale. It was a thin, small little book and sounded interesting from the cover description. This little innocent looking book deals with some heavy hitting topics. Racism, sexual abuse, alcoholism, among other things.
Mona and Bird are let to their own devices just about all the time in this book. Mona is constantly told "go watch your sister". Mona does her best to keep Bird from climbing too high in the trees, for fear she will fall and injure herself.
It's discussed how Bird's mind is lagging behind her physical age. However, I thought of the characters Bird was insightful and wise beyond her years. She climbs trees escaping the live below. If only she could get to the other side of the sky. It was sad to see these two rag-a-muffin girls slog through life with little love or joy. Not much in the way of role models among the adults surrounding them either.
This book is touching and inspiring to see how Mona and Bird finally handle the incident they've witnessed.
My favorite line: "This time our gift comes from life itself and is served up on a tray of stars."
Worth checking out for sure. I would say due to the delicate nature of some of the themes, 13 and up is my recommended age. I'm giving it 3 1/2 tender kisses
Mona and Bird are let to their own devices just about all the time in this book. Mona is constantly told "go watch your sister". Mona does her best to keep Bird from climbing too high in the trees, for fear she will fall and injure herself.
It's discussed how Bird's mind is lagging behind her physical age. However, I thought of the characters Bird was insightful and wise beyond her years. She climbs trees escaping the live below. If only she could get to the other side of the sky. It was sad to see these two rag-a-muffin girls slog through life with little love or joy. Not much in the way of role models among the adults surrounding them either.
This book is touching and inspiring to see how Mona and Bird finally handle the incident they've witnessed.
My favorite line: "This time our gift comes from life itself and is served up on a tray of stars."
Worth checking out for sure. I would say due to the delicate nature of some of the themes, 13 and up is my recommended age. I'm giving it 3 1/2 tender kisses
February 25, 2016
Je parle de ma ixième relecture de ce livre, toujours parmi mes préférés, dans cette vidéo :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCvdf...
Aussi dans cette vidéo *Lesperruches sont cuites* de Charles Bolduc et *Un petit pas pour l'homme* de Stéphane Dompierre.
Abonnez-vous à ma chaîne!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCvdf...
Aussi dans cette vidéo *Lesperruches sont cuites* de Charles Bolduc et *Un petit pas pour l'homme* de Stéphane Dompierre.
Abonnez-vous à ma chaîne!
September 3, 2008
Powerful book that deals with harsh themes. Very lyrical prose and the characters are realistic. Note some content may not be suitable for all readers.
November 8, 2012
Well it wasn't bad but there just wasn't enough 'oomph' to keep me entertained.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews