Monday, January 8, 2024

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (audiobook)

 genre: middle grade fiction

ZJ loves his dad more than anybody does - and when your dad has been a pro-football player, a LOT of people love him.  With his dad's big heart and big personality, life for ZJ is almost too good to be true.  So when his dad starts acting not like himself, it's deeply upsetting and confusing for ZJ.  Slowly, as he and his family learn that Dad's football career has impacted his brain, ZJ realizes that even with all the comfort you can find in the past, we have to find ways to deal with even a really hard present.

This is a gorgeously performed audiobook.  I could imagine ZJ in all his boyishness, the relationships here ringing so true and poignant.  ZJ and his Dad.  ZJ and his mom.  ZJ and his best friends.  It is raw and beautiful in its honesty about a subject that's big and scary.  Even if your dad wasn't a profootball player, any child who has a parent dealing with mental illness can find comfort in how ZJ works his way through, finding coping strategies and relying on people that circle him with love.

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