Critics' Opinion:
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Published in USA
Aug 2012
224 pages
Genre: Novels
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+
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"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
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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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