A Gift for Gracelyn by A. E. Smith, illustrated by Jamie Yeager is a young children’s chapter book. It’s a book that I’m reviewing for Speakeasy. A gift for Gracelyn is a faith based book but the faith elements appear naturally in the book, it’s just part of who Gracelyn’s family are. This is the first children’s book that I’ve reviewed. The most recent other review was White Knuckle Love.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this Ebook free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Gracelyn who is eleven, turning 12 has a heart condition which means that she becomes tired quickly and sometimes has trouble breathing. Because of this she can’t exercise too much. She lives on a ranch in Arizona with her older brother, Terry, their parents and a whole host of animals. The animals feature heavily in the story and are described with great detail.
Gracelyn, is going to have an operation to fix her heart. So she’ll be away from the ranch for a few months and will be away for her birthday. When the animals hear about this they meet together to discuss how they can give a gift to Gracelyn for her birthday while she’s away. What can they give her & how are they going to get it to her? The description of the animals and them coming together for the meeting is very detailed. I learnt a few things about some animals that I hadn’t known before. A child would enjoy the description and would learn as well.
All the different animals came together and worked well together, even though that wouldn’t be normal. I thought surely the humans would wonder what was going on with all the animals meeting together. The humans did realise and wonder what was going on but that made the book more magical.
I’m not going to spoil the book by giving too much more detail about what happens. The book moves from before the operation, to the recovery and finishes soon after Gracelyn arrives home. In a special kind of way things work well for Gracelyn and the animals have another surprise for the end of the book. I’m not sure I totally like the ending but did like the fact that animals and people were together in the final scene.
Jamie Yeager’s illustrations are beautiful and almost childlike in their style but also detailed at the same time. The illustrations really add to the story.
Children who read this book should enjoy the story. It would also be a great book for a parent to read with a child. There is lots that could be discussed as the book is read. Overall this is a sweet book which uses animals and other things to discuss the hard topic of a sick child.