The Whispers is a middle grade read about coming to terms with loss and how one accepts and molds reality to deal with great loss until the heart is willing to accept what the brain already knows.

Riley is an eleven-year-old child who is dealing with the loss of his mother.  The book centers around his search for her.  Throughout this search, he follows the Whispers, which are fairy like creatures that were in a story his mother told him throughout his childhood.  But when he discovers what the Whispers are and comes to terms with what really happened to his mother, his world opens, and he sees how he molded his perceptions of the world around him in his dealing with grief.

The story line in the book is fantastic.  This child creates a whole story around how his mother disappears in an effort to grieve.  I found Riley’s character a little lack-luster in that his actions, mannerisms, and thoughts throughout the book skewed a little younger than his stated age of eleven and being a sixth grader.  For example, he continues to direct a corn-stalk choir like he did previously with his mother, but I don’t think many eleven-year olds would still indulge in this type of fantasy play.  However, one of his “conditions” is skewed older and so in the end it somewhat balanced the character.

I loved the usage of vocabulary throughout this book.  Throughout, Riley talks about how he and his mom used to play this word game that started with a word of the day calendar.  Interspersed throughout the book were relatively complex vocabulary words.  The author masterfully weaves in the definitions of these words using language middle grade readers will understand and gives a great example sentence using each word.  The lessons flow effortlessly throughout the novel, and I thought it was an ingenious way to expand vocabulary for this reading level.

Overall, a good book that deals with some mature subject matter at a reader-appropriate level. 

Review of an Advance Reading Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  2 religious exclamations; 1 mild obscenity.

Violence/Gore:  Reference to a man killed in war (no detail); finger poke to chest; bruised face and broken lip as result of child abuse; man scares children in woods; verbal threat with shotgun pointed at person; recall of man being cruel to animals as child (no detail); minor cuts and scrapes from branches; pet dies of natural causes.

Sex/Nudity:  Recall of wanting to kiss or kissing members of the same sex three times; reference to homosexuality throughout book (referred to as “other condition”); reference to a girl’s breast size twice; paragraph discussion of male animals’ genitals.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death, terminal illness, abandonment, child abuse, stealing, homosexuality (references).

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Mention of adults drinking and kids reportedly drinking and smoking.  (No actual scenes of usage in book, just recall).