The Sky is Everywhere

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (Walker Books)

PB RRP $ 17.95

ISBN 9781406354386

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Lennie’s sister Bailey has died suddenly and she isn’t coping with this loss at all. Her greatest comforts are her clarinet and her worn copy of Wuthering Heights in which she scribbles poems in the margins. Lennie’s mother has been out of her life for sixteen years and Gram and Uncle Bill are all the family she has left.

The wild, gypsy looking Joe Fontaine invades her life on her return to school after a month’s absence. This begins when Lennie finds Joe in her place at band practice.

Toby, Bailey’s boyfriend and almost fiancé, is grieving too. Two people grieving for the same person are drawn together in a tempest of emotion that threatens to blow out of control.

Lennie has also been grieving all her life for the loss of her mother who left and took all traces of herself with her. It is as if she had never existed. Lennie tries to console herself by writing her feelings on random scrap pieces of paper that she scatters everywhere.

Unknown to her, Joe has been collecting these life entries and it is through these pieces of scattered information that he learns what he needs to know about Lennie. But her emotional ties to Toby have to be cut before there is any hope for Lennie and Joe to move forward.

Deeply moving, highly emotional and beautifully delivered, this is a book not to be missed. It’s about love, loss, grief and restoration of hope.