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Dancing in the Rain by Shelley Hrdlitschka (Orca $14.95)
Shelley hrdlitschka hit it out of the park with Dancing Naked (Orca 2002), a YA novel about a young girl's course through pregnancy and her eventual decision to adopt her child to another family. Fans wrote and asked, What happened to the baby? followed by, What happened to the BABY?? but Hrdlitschka had no intention of following it up with a sequel
Then, four years ago, a young woman wrote to Hrdlitschka saying she had been moved by Dancing Naked as a teenager and had faithfully been combing the shelves ever since, looking for the next book. "She was in her twenties!"; says Hrdlitschka. "She had kept waiting for ten years.";
That has given rise to Dancing in the Rain, the story of that baby, sixteen years later, when Brenna, her adoptive father and adoptive sister are trying to pick up the pieces after Brenna's adoptive mother, Joanna, has succumbed to fast-moving breast cancer.
Before and after her mother's illness, Brenna volunteers at the wildlife refuge on Grouse Mountain, where her mother used to work. This job grounds her; it keeps her putting one foot in front of the other, as she moves through grief.
As Brenna commutes from the bottom of the hill to the grizzly bear enclosure every Saturday, she gets to know a friendly Australian tram operator named Ryan, who adored Joanna as a sort of surrogate mother while he was away from home.
As part of his own healing in the wake of his own mother's struggle with drugs and alcohol, and his brother's death in a car accident, Ryan takes Brenna under his wing, convincing her to hike the Grouse Grind as a way of dealing with the grief. Brenna accepts; a friendship turns romantic.
Ryan provides strong support for Brenna as she watches her younger sister, Naysa, try to drink and party the pain away. Brenna's hurdles include navigating a new life with an empty chair at the dining room table and reading the journal that her birth mother, Kia, had kept during the time she was pregnant with Brenna.
The journal is tougher than the Grouse Grind. Brenna tries to understand the forces at work in Kia's life that ultimately persuaded her to give her baby to another family to raise.
Alerted to Joanna's death by a mutual friend (the minister, Justin, for those who know the characters from the first book), Kia's sister Angie reaches out via Facebook. It rattles Brenna to have her birth aunt suddenly be in touch after all these years, but Angie is Brenna's only link to Kia, who isn't yet ready to reconnect with her daughter.
Angie gradually becomes a source of support for Brenna, helping to stabilize Naysa and drawing the aching family back together.
Although Ryan returns to Australia when his mother is discharged from rehab, he and Brenna maintain their connection, with him encouraging her to take part in a relay on Grouse to raise funds for breast cancer research.
We can't reveal what happens next, whether the past can be reconciled with the future. Suffice to say Hrdlitschka is once again trotting around all four bases.
Dancing in the Rain is an uplifting, heartwarming book that reminds young readers to look outside themselves for support when times get hard.
Adoption is an issue close to Hrdlitschka's heart because she has three adopted siblings. "In my extended family, there are all kinds of adoptions,"; she says, "and many across race lines.";
Hrdlitschka sprinkles some good guidance around, showing her characters making good and not-so-good choices from which they learn. Everybody hurts, and nobody's life is perfect-not even in the end. But it's real. And there's a real beauty in that. 978-1-4598-1065-5
Alex Van Tol is the author of Aliens Among Us: Invasive Animals and Plants in B.C.
Then, four years ago, a young woman wrote to Hrdlitschka saying she had been moved by Dancing Naked as a teenager and had faithfully been combing the shelves ever since, looking for the next book. "She was in her twenties!"; says Hrdlitschka. "She had kept waiting for ten years.";
That has given rise to Dancing in the Rain, the story of that baby, sixteen years later, when Brenna, her adoptive father and adoptive sister are trying to pick up the pieces after Brenna's adoptive mother, Joanna, has succumbed to fast-moving breast cancer.
Before and after her mother's illness, Brenna volunteers at the wildlife refuge on Grouse Mountain, where her mother used to work. This job grounds her; it keeps her putting one foot in front of the other, as she moves through grief.
As Brenna commutes from the bottom of the hill to the grizzly bear enclosure every Saturday, she gets to know a friendly Australian tram operator named Ryan, who adored Joanna as a sort of surrogate mother while he was away from home.
As part of his own healing in the wake of his own mother's struggle with drugs and alcohol, and his brother's death in a car accident, Ryan takes Brenna under his wing, convincing her to hike the Grouse Grind as a way of dealing with the grief. Brenna accepts; a friendship turns romantic.
Ryan provides strong support for Brenna as she watches her younger sister, Naysa, try to drink and party the pain away. Brenna's hurdles include navigating a new life with an empty chair at the dining room table and reading the journal that her birth mother, Kia, had kept during the time she was pregnant with Brenna.
The journal is tougher than the Grouse Grind. Brenna tries to understand the forces at work in Kia's life that ultimately persuaded her to give her baby to another family to raise.
Alerted to Joanna's death by a mutual friend (the minister, Justin, for those who know the characters from the first book), Kia's sister Angie reaches out via Facebook. It rattles Brenna to have her birth aunt suddenly be in touch after all these years, but Angie is Brenna's only link to Kia, who isn't yet ready to reconnect with her daughter.
Angie gradually becomes a source of support for Brenna, helping to stabilize Naysa and drawing the aching family back together.
Although Ryan returns to Australia when his mother is discharged from rehab, he and Brenna maintain their connection, with him encouraging her to take part in a relay on Grouse to raise funds for breast cancer research.
We can't reveal what happens next, whether the past can be reconciled with the future. Suffice to say Hrdlitschka is once again trotting around all four bases.
Dancing in the Rain is an uplifting, heartwarming book that reminds young readers to look outside themselves for support when times get hard.
Adoption is an issue close to Hrdlitschka's heart because she has three adopted siblings. "In my extended family, there are all kinds of adoptions,"; she says, "and many across race lines.";
Hrdlitschka sprinkles some good guidance around, showing her characters making good and not-so-good choices from which they learn. Everybody hurts, and nobody's life is perfect-not even in the end. But it's real. And there's a real beauty in that. 978-1-4598-1065-5
Alex Van Tol is the author of Aliens Among Us: Invasive Animals and Plants in B.C.
Submitted on September 5, 2016 in By David.
