Description
Four years ago, Millie lost her baby brother Noah before he could be born. She writes a journal to him, exploring her memories and emotions, and thinks about him every day. When she learns her mother is pregnant again, she writes to him about her anxieties. What if the new baby dies like Noah did?
Millie takes it upon herself to take care of her mum while she’s pregnant. She cooks, cleans, and brings her mum ginger tea when she feels sick in the morning. At school, she has two close friends, the bubbly extrovert, Charlie, and bookish introvert, Emma, who pull her in two directions. But Chappy Leeann is there to help her sort out her feelings. Working together to support their parents and the drought affecting their sheep farm, Millie grows closer to her older sister Vicky and learns to appreciate the things in her life. As Millie shares all her feelings with Noah, she reassures her precious stillborn baby brother that even after her new sibling is born, she will always be his sister. Throughout it all, Millie learns just how resilient and strong she really is.
This book contains an important message about the impact of stillborn children on the lives of siblings too, and highlights the importance of school chaplains in their ability to help children through their emotions. Siblings are often overlooked as they grieve the loss of an expected baby.
Review
Millie is going into Grade Six. She lives on a farm in a rural Australian town with her Christian family and experiences the harsh effect of an Australian drought. Her Dad works two jobs but he doesn’t complain, and her Mum is pregnant.
But four years ago, Millie had stillborn little brother named Noah, and Millie is scared that this might happen again. She is determined not to ever forget the boy that was her little brother.
Millie has two good friends, the sporty extrovert Charlie, and the bookish Emma. They drag her in different directions, but she is the glue that keeps the group together.
Millie has anxiety that is greatly helped by the school chaplain, who is a wonderful example of the help that they can provide to young people as they struggle with trauma and with mental health issues.
I loved this book - its tenderness, its setting and its normal Australian rural family. They have their issues, but they work on their problems. With challenging themes of family, friendship, hardship, tough economic times and, most importantly, stillbirth, I chose this for our lower secondary selection. There is no reason that upper primary students couldn’t get a lot out of the story too, but it would need to be handled with care to ensure it found the right readers in a primary school setting. I recommend it to lower secondary students aged 12 to 14 years.
