Overview

In this gentle, poignant novel-in-verse, the acclaimed author of AMARYLLIS tells a family tale that is infused with joy, heartbreak, and hope. Mom says Dad's spirit lives in every blade of grass, in every tree, in all the ways we learn to keep on breathing. A new beginning and a simpler life -- that's what Mom and Dad and their young son are looking for when they move north of everything, leaving the city life of Miami for a farm in Montpelier, Vermont. And that's what they find, among a hundred peaceful acres of fields and pastures hugging the banks of the Winooski River. But even as the now-rural family takes careful note of the changing seasons, they encounter their own unexpected series of beginnings and endings. Craig Crist-Evans's spare, lyrical novel will speak to anyone who has experienced change and loss, and who has faced the struggle -- and found the spirit to carry on.

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9780763620981

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Reviews

A spare, poignant piece about a quiet farming family's loss, sorrow, and recovery. A young boy, narrating in minimalist first-person verses, moves from Miami to northern Vermont-north of everything. His parents' new farm provides good clean dirt and a centering stillness. The family of three is calmly settled until Dad gets skinny as a fence rail. Despite jokes that Dad's losing the same weight that pregnant Mom is gaining, the boy knows something is wrong. Dad soon dies of cancer. Mom cares for the boy and his baby sister but turns despairingly to whiskey. She stops drinking after a while, though, and bits of lightness creep slowly back into their lives. By the end, the boy's driven the tractor himself for the first time; the baby-whom the boy calls Spanky -says Dad as her first word. Painful, but this family's learned how to keep on breathing, and Vermont's pastures, air, and soil will continue to help. Gentle and contemplative. (Fiction. 10-14) (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

"Craig Crist-Evans published poems, articles, essays, and reviews in numerous journals. He was also the author of AMARYLLIS and MOON OVER TENNESSEE: A BOY'S CIVIL WAR JOURNAL, for which he received the International Reading Association's Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award. He also taught English and directed the Writing Center at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania before he passed away in 2005. Craig Crist-Evans said, ""NORTH OF EVERYTHING is my attempt to portray the changes one boy and his family experience -- through the shifting seasons and in their own lives -- that lead them to a humble acceptance of both beauty and loss in the world."""

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