∎ Download Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 9780679644194 Books

Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 9780679644194 Books

Download As PDF : Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 9780679644194 Books

Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 9780679644194 Books

'...I thought how many small good things in the world might be resting on the shoulders of something terrible.'

For a first time author, Ms. Brunt hits this book out of the ball park. I've read second, third, or forth time novels from critically acclaimed authors that did not shine as brightly as this "literary debut." I found the book polished and totally absorbing.

It's not that this has lots of action or an intriquing plot per se, but somehow the story gently pulls one in and forces those pages to turn. It's about a girl, June, whose beloved Uncle Finn has died of AIDS. The story takes place in 1987 when there was still a pandemic of fear regarding AIDS. I remember working in the food industry when AIDS was revealed and some of my co workers wore gloves so they wouldn't catch the virus from strangers. The revelation that AIDS was out there, was scary. Anyway, Finn dies, but not before June and her sister Greta sit for the talented artist Sunday after Sunday in his New York apartment so he can paint their portrait. He finishes it and he dies. June, his favorite niece is heartbroken and lost.

June learns that Finn had a friend. June's mother, Finn's sister, and the rest of June's family believe that Toby, Finn's friend, gave Finn AIDS and killed him and they want nothing to do with him-at all. June begins a secret friendship with the man who lives in Finn's New York apartment. I don't want to give too much away, but June begins to sneak to New York to visit with Toby. Revealing in snippets the duo's own stories of Finn who made the ordinary extraordinary, to them.

In the meantime, Greta is another strong character in Tell The Wolves I'm Home. The two sisters had been close as children, but since, have drifted apart. Greta is aloof, snotty and so mean to June but she is also her high school's shining talent in the current play, South Pacific.

All in all, this was a very compelling, hard to put down book. The time period is spot on. The fear of AIDS, the rumors and paranoia regardng the disease are spot on. The sadness of losing someone you love to this disease which wasted and continues to waste people away is spot on, but it's more than that: this story is about love, family, death, lost opportunity, hope, limitations and boundless choices. And the message that life is short-brilliantly executed. Excellent debut!


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Tell the Wolves I'm Home Carol Rifka Brunt 9780679644194 Books Reviews

This is a charming book in a very young adult novel kind of way. It’s a very easy and quick read, character driven, and a nice balance of angst and growth.

This novel is a story told by fifteen-year-old June in the 1980s, where the death of a beloved uncle from AIDS sends her on a life-changing, soul-searching journey.

There are so many reasons why this should have been classified as young adult. The narrator is only fifteen, with distinctly youthful language and adolescent thought processes. She finds herself grappling with tough life issues without parental help (so typical in YA novels) because her accountant parents are in the middle of tax season, and her life has led her to be estranged from her older sister as well. She struggles with self-esteem and other typical coming-of-age problems like boys, self-identification, and fitting in. Plus, like most YA books, there’s this certainty while reading that everything is going to work out in the end, that the narrator will lose some innocence but gain some wisdom. This let’s us feel safe in following the main characters twists and turns. It’s all just so typical of every other young adult novel, I don’t understand why it isn’t classified as such.

The language and themes are good. Not great, but good. Rarely was I ever taken out of the book, but rarely did I re-read a passage for its beauty either. There’s a nice level of complexity to the characters, but it has its fair share of coincidences, along with a feel that the characters make choices that no one would actually make but which turn out all right in the end. The ending was rather hard to swallow but fit well with the rest of the book.

One of my favorite quotes from the book “If you think a story can be like a kind of cement, the sloppy kind that you put between bricks, the kind that looks like cake frosting before it dries hard, then maybe I thought it would be possible to use what Toby had to hold Finn together, to keep him here with me a little bit longer” (pg. 78).

Young adult literature can still be excellent reading, and this book is like that. If you looking for a light read, do grab this.

While I have included discussion questions, I found that my questions felt rather simple. Unless you have a book club geared to young readers or you attend a book club that likes to drink a lot of wine, I would pass on this book for most discussion groups.
'...I thought how many small good things in the world might be resting on the shoulders of something terrible.'

For a first time author, Ms. Brunt hits this book out of the ball park. I've read second, third, or forth time novels from critically acclaimed authors that did not shine as brightly as this "literary debut." I found the book polished and totally absorbing.

It's not that this has lots of action or an intriquing plot per se, but somehow the story gently pulls one in and forces those pages to turn. It's about a girl, June, whose beloved Uncle Finn has died of AIDS. The story takes place in 1987 when there was still a pandemic of fear regarding AIDS. I remember working in the food industry when AIDS was revealed and some of my co workers wore gloves so they wouldn't catch the virus from strangers. The revelation that AIDS was out there, was scary. Anyway, Finn dies, but not before June and her sister Greta sit for the talented artist Sunday after Sunday in his New York apartment so he can paint their portrait. He finishes it and he dies. June, his favorite niece is heartbroken and lost.

June learns that Finn had a friend. June's mother, Finn's sister, and the rest of June's family believe that Toby, Finn's friend, gave Finn AIDS and killed him and they want nothing to do with him-at all. June begins a secret friendship with the man who lives in Finn's New York apartment. I don't want to give too much away, but June begins to sneak to New York to visit with Toby. Revealing in snippets the duo's own stories of Finn who made the ordinary extraordinary, to them.

In the meantime, Greta is another strong character in Tell The Wolves I'm Home. The two sisters had been close as children, but since, have drifted apart. Greta is aloof, snotty and so mean to June but she is also her high school's shining talent in the current play, South Pacific.

All in all, this was a very compelling, hard to put down book. The time period is spot on. The fear of AIDS, the rumors and paranoia regardng the disease are spot on. The sadness of losing someone you love to this disease which wasted and continues to waste people away is spot on, but it's more than that this story is about love, family, death, lost opportunity, hope, limitations and boundless choices. And the message that life is short-brilliantly executed. Excellent debut!