Book Review - See You at Harry's

I'm not sure why I wait to read a book when I hear it's amazing.  I often buy books when they are released and then they sit on my shelf for awhile.  But I think sometimes that books find a way into a reader's hands at just the right time, and this was the case for me with See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles.

I had the honor and privilege to hear Jo Knowles speak about her latest book while at the 2012 ALAN convention.  I love learning about the story behind the story, and I believe that can make reading the book more powerful.  Based on Jo Knowles' experience of growing up in a restaurant business, this is a book about so many things other than that.

I found that the restaurant aspect of the book became a backdrop for plot layers weaved throughout story.  The narrator, Fern, is twelve years old and feels invisible in the midst of the family business and her little brother, Charlie.  Fern was named after Fern in Charlotte's Web because her mother thought, "From the moment you were born, I could tell you had a special soul.  I knew you'd be a good friend. A hero." (p. 3) Fern is trying to make sense of her family.  Holden, her older brother, is making "new friends."  Sarah, the oldest of the siblings, is taking a year off from school and helping with the business, and then there is three year old Charlie who is the "center of everything." Mom is always meditating or doting on Charlie and dad is minding the business. 


I thought Knowles was going to take the book in a certain direction but doesn't and it shocked me to the core.  Knowles quietly builds to this event and turns the family's world upside down.  Fern immediately starts blaming herself for what happens and slowly begins to realize that others in the family are doing the same.


I found this to be a story about love, forgiveness, hope, coming-of-age, friendship, acceptance, and truth. See You at Harry's, ironically, became comforting to me given the devastating events of Sandy Hook Elementary.  When I heard about what happened at Sandy Hook, I was at the devastating part in the book.  I strongly believe that eventually, "All will be well" as much as it can be.  I know it will take a LONG time; I hope the families and community can find comfort in some way, whether it's in a book or elsewhere.  And this is why I feel that books somehow wait on my shelf to be read at just the right moment; and sure enough this was one of them.