Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2012
224 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
My sister Rose lives on the mantelpiece.
Well, some of her does.
A collarbone, two ribs, a bit of skull, and a little toe.
To ten-year-old Jamie, his family has fallen apart because of the loss of someone he barely remembers: his sister Rose, who died five years ago in a terrorist bombing. To his father, life is impossible to make sense of when he lives in a world that could so cruelly take away a ten-year-old girl. To Rose's surviving fifteen year old twin, Jas, everyday she lives in Rose's ever present shadow, forever feeling the loss like a limb, but unable to be seen for herself alone.
Told with warmth and humor, this powerful novel is a sophisticated take on one family's struggle to make sense of the loss that's torn them apart... and their discovery of what it means to stay together.
Ages 12+
"Starred Review. Realistic, gritty and uplifting. Ages 10-14." - Kirkus Reviews
"Starred Review. Pitcher tackles grief, prejudice, religion, bullying, and familial instability through the unsentimental voice of a boy who loves Spider-Man and Manchester United, misses his mother, and - truth be told - doesn't remember his dead sister all that well. The adults in Pitcher's story may be a mess, but the kids are all right. Ages 12+" - Publishers Weekly
"It lives off the page. It has a warmth you can bask in; an honesty you can cut with a knife." - The Guardian (UK)
"Compelling and believable... by turns heartbreaking and hysterically funny... This is an important book that could be used in classes and book-discussion groups. Don't let it fall through the cracks." - School Library Journal
This information about My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Annabel Pitcher is the award-winning author of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece and Ketchup Clouds. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English Literature. She lives in Yorkshire with her husband.
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