Some days Mom soars on the wind like a kite, and \u201cno matter how hard I pull the string, I can\u2019t bring her back down.\u201d Other days, Mom\u2019s boat takes on water and begins to sink. The child tries to help bail it out from her own buoyant vessel, but it\u2019s not enough, and Mom spends those days in bed, while the child\u2019s boat feels \u201ccramped and heavy.\u201d Mom takes the child to meet Grace, a therapist who tells her it\u2019s not her responsibility to monitor her mother\u2019s moods. On another \u201csinking day,\u201d the child picks up crayons instead and draws. Later, Mom joins her and asks for a picture to hang where she can see it from her bed. The child wonders if she\u2019ll encounter similar troubles when she\u2019s an adult. No one knows, but nevertheless, the young protagonist feels ready to face whatever happens. Detlefsen has crafted a heartfelt meditation on the effects of mental illness on family members. Metaphors are woven in with more concrete events; both reinforce the story\u2019s positive message. Importantly, Mom\u2019s struggles are realistically depicted, but so is the loving parent-child relationship. Dion\u2019s illustrations use negative space to great effect, and the gouache-style brushstrokes create a lovely, textured softness. Mother and child are tan-skinned; Grace is paler.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some days Mom soars on the wind like a kite, and \u201cno matter how hard I pull the string, I can\u2019t bring her back down.\u201d Other days, Mom\u2019s boat takes on water and begins to sink. The child tries to help bail it out from her own buoyant vessel, but it\u2019s not enough, and Mom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}