Thursday, April 23, 2015

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

Image result for the boy in the black suitThis one is a quiet gentle novel about a young boy trying to deal with the recent death of his mother to cancer and his father's subsequent descent into alcoholism.  Matt lives in Brooklyn New York in a pretty tough neighborhood.  He and his mother were extremely close, so he is devastated when she is diagnosed with breast cancer and dies shortly after. His father is unable to deal with the death of his beloved wife and buries his sorrow in a bottle of alcohol.  In an attempt to deal with his grief Matt takes on an after school job at the local funeral home where his mother's service was held and begins attending funerals of strangers.  This gives him a strange sense of peace and comfort and helps him to understand that he is not alone in grieving for a loved one. Also, the funeral director, Mr. Ray, takes Matt under his wing and vows to take care of him when his dad is involved in a crippling accident that removes him from the home for several weeks. When one of the funerals Matt helps to set up and attends turns out to be for the grandmother of a girl he has had his eye on for a while his life takes an upward turn.
If you are looking for a book with a lot of action, this one isn't for you.  It's a heartfelt story that has a real feel good type of ending. From the author's afterword:  "This is going to sound weird, but the only reason this book could be written at all is because my mother took me to a lot of funerals at a very young age. So...uh...thanks, Ma."  

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