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www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
THE LAND — AUGUST 21/AUGUST 28, 2020
Picture book helps youth look at family tragedy Sometimes, things change in a minute. You look, and it’s one way. You look again, it’s different — and you didn’t even see the change happening. You might not like it, but that never matters. As in the new picture book “The Shared Room” by Kao Kalia Yang (illustrations by Xee Reiter), that’s when it’s best just to take a deep breath, roll your shoulders, and move on. If it were any other winter day in Minnesota, it might’ve been nice. It was warm enough for the snow to melt and you could almost see that spring was coming. But inside the house in east St. Paul, there were shadows across a dark fireplace and quiet floors. There was light in the house, but no sunshine. Pictures hung on the wall but it was hard to look at them because they reminded the family inside the house that one of them was missing. It had been seven months since the girl with the shiny brown hair and big toothy smile, the happy little girl in a framed picture, had walked into a lake, misstepped, and accidentally drowned. Nobody had seen it happen and nobody in the family could forget. The mother and the father couldn’t even bear to take the sheets off the girl’s bed and for seven months. They visited her room and cried once, twice, three times a day. The house was quiet, except when someone would play a video of the girl on their phone, and everyone watched.
But then, some“The Shared Room” thing shifted. by Kao Kalia Yang, Ever since the illustrations by Xee Reiter youngest brother was born, the oldc.2020, University of Minnesota Press est brother shared $16.95 / higher in Canada a bedroom with 32 pages him in the house in east St. Paul. THE BOOKWORM leaves a heaviness over the There were four SEZ story that stays well beyond the bedrooms, four By Terri Schlichenmeyer final page, and you’ll feel it in your chest. children and two And yet, if you can withstand the pall, there’s a parents, so there sliver of hope inside this book and a reminder that had to be sharing — until the parents asked the life goes on. It also serves to tell a child that it’s oldest brother if he’d like to have his sister’s room. best to come to terms with death but that never forHe’d have her bed. He would have her dresser and getting is okay, too. her closet. Again, read this book through once before you give But he would never have her back. Would he miss it to your 8-to-12-year-old. “The Shared Room” may his sister forever? prove to be too much, too early, too overwhelming — Is “The Shared Room” a book for children? or it may change your child’s grieving. You may wonder that after you’ve read it through Look for the reviewed book at a bookstore or a once — and you should, to gauge its appropriatelibrary near you. You may also find the book at ness for your child before you present it. It’s a lovely online book retailers. story, but it’s also deeply, unbearably sad. The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has While the artwork by Xee Reiter may soften been reading since she was 3 years old and never things a bit, author Kao Kalia Yang’s tale starts goes anywhere without a book. She lives in with silence and ends like a grey tattered shawl Wisconsin with three dogs and 10,000 books. v draped over every page. This profound mourning
Cruising along with a song in my heart (and on CD) I do enjoy listening to ag radio stations Included on the CD is the song “You when I’m driving down the road alone. It Can’t Be A Beacon If Your Light Don’t helps me to stay awake while updating me Shine” prodding me on that I go the on the news they choose to share. After a extra mile to be a ray of sunshine in the few hours I am a travelling encyclopedia lives of anyone who crosses my path; on the often-repeated current events, the because “Greater Is He Than Is In Me.” spiraling downward trend of the market These days trouble seems to come in prices, the amount of water which has waves attempting to overwhelm. The evaporated from the fields, as well as the reassurance from their singing “He Will FROM MY water needed to keep the crops going. Provide” lets me know that “Jesus Loves FARMHOUSE When I travel out of the stations’ sigMe.” Many times when “I Was Down, KITCHEN nal, it’s time to listen to prerecorded Down, Down, My Jesus Picked Me Up.” By Renae B. music on CDs. One of my favorites is by Sometimes he has sent His love “On The Vander Schaaf the Mountain Lake Gospel Singers from Wings of a Dove,” and other times I just a town which bears that name in Minnesota. A very have to “Dig A Little Deeper in the Well.” musical talented group of friends have gone the I grew up on the farm near extra mile to share the gospel through their singing the Iowa-Minnesota border. and a variety of instruments. The country church I attendIt was a pleasure to hear them perform in our ed was in Iowa, but had a church some years ago, as the last I heard they Minnesota address. The have disbanded. Fortunately, we purchased several Mountain Lake Gospel Singers of the CDs they produced sing a song, “The Little Country Church,” which could Appropriately, the CD entitled Cruising Along have been written by me…. With The Mountain Lake Gospel Singers is usually “We’d open up the windows and the one I listen to, as that’s what I am doing. Since everyone would join in singing it is only us cruising along, my voice just blends and the little church was ringing.” right in as we sing ‘together’.
Not a day goes by that I am not thankful “He Made A Change In My Life.” Too often my conscience still has to prick me — causing my thoughts to go back to that day and realize it is again necessary to reassess the way I have been living or thinking. And once again confess, repent and experience the cleansing that happens because “He Touched Me.” None of us know when our final day will be. In the back of our minds we wonder if some night, while sleeping, we will be “Serenaded By Angels;” or perhaps someday when I’m washing dishes the trumpet will sound and “I’ll Hear The Lord Is Coming.” The CD was playing in my pickup while my granddaughters were riding along. Without any prompting they sang “Oh, How I Love Jesus” along with The Mountain Gospel Singers. I knew they were beginning to understand why I enjoy listening to this CD so much. Thank you to The Mountain Gospel Singers and other area groups who have taken the time to share your musical talents with the rest of us who enjoy good music. Renae B. Vander Schaaf is an independent writer, author and speaker. Contact her at (605) 530-0017 or agripen@live.com. v
