This week...I had become exceedingly busy with work and volunteership, consequently... I had had had no time to start my blog let alone finish it.
I was furtively trying to figure out what I would blog about...
I had two books in my mind, Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson.
Oh yeah! I can never tire from her fabulous books.
The other was a remarkable biography of Maestra Antonia Brico.
While I toyed agonizingly, waiting for the right thoughts and words to cascade through my bewildered mind as to which book would be my blog magnet...I started flipping through a book called The Living Name by H.H. Sachidananda Swami Maharaj.
I flipped open the book and started scanning the page and the following sentence jumped out at me...
"As the baby birds who have not yet developed their wings always look for their mother to return and feed them..." Srimad Bhagavatam (scriptures).
I was astonished!
I knew I had found my inspiration. I knew which book I would review today for my blog.
Written by the incredible Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by the amazing E.B. Lewis, Coming on Home Soon is a tender and heart-rending story of anxious waiting and hopeful longing of a little girl for her mother.
Situated against the backdrop of World War II - while the men have gone to fight in the war; the women are left tending to their families.
Ada lives with her mother and her grandmother. Her mother has to leave Ada and her grandmother and head to Chicago to earn a living.
Ada is wretchedly sorrowful. She yearns for her mother. Memories of her mother haunt her. From the lye soap which her mother uses to "get the wash real clean" to the smell of her mother - "somedays like the sun" and "like sugar some days"...flood her mind constantly.
She and her grandmother are always on the look out for a tiny sign which would indicate the arrival of her mother.
They stare out their window, waiting desperately for the mail, which would bring some joyous news.
E.B. Lewis captures the pitiably bleak and desolate mood with his haunting and lifelike illustrations.
His usage of grave shades of brown and grey and Jacqueline Woodson's sparse text and imaginative words capture the intensity of the situation with a force that will linger in the reader's mind, long after the book has been read.
While I read the book, my mind kept going back to the scene where Ada was staring out at the harsh winter, earnestly waiting for her mother's loving arrival. I cannot imagine how desperate it must have been for a woman to leave her family and go off to work, cleaning railroad cars! It must have been arduous and laborious and replete with dangers.
I wonder at the millions of families who must have had to deal with such distressing circumstances, hoping against hope, waiting for a loved one's return. My heart goes out to them.
However, Coming on Home Soon ends on a happy note when Ada learns her mother will be "coming on home soon."
Winner of multiple awards including the 2005 Caldecott Silver Medal, Coming on Home Soon is a brilliant and heart-wrenching story of love, survival and hope.
A must read for children and adults.
Image Source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Penguin Random House
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