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Children's Book of the Month

Love Lucie by Marita Conlon McKenna
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2012

Anyone young or old who’s lost a loved one, particularly a mother will be instantly drawn to this latest novel by Marita Conlon McKenna. It is first and foremost an emotional tearjerker but surprisingly offers up moments of light heartedness when least expected.

Lucie is the middle child in the family. She, her sister Chloe and her brother Hugo are confused and bewildered by the constant presence of neighbours and family in their home who try to fill the enormous void left by the death of their beloved Mum. While everyone’s trying to help, all Lucie’s family wants is to be left alone and for everything to be as it was.

As well as the emotional fallout, the practicalities that follow a bereavement are there waiting to be dealt with. Dad must try to provide meals for the family, sort out Mum’s clothes and find an au pair in an effort to restore some semblance of normal, family life.

Lucie is also trying to cope with all the issues that a girl turning eleven has to face, her first kiss, trying to get along with her big sister and trying to help Hugo who has bad dreams all the time. How will she possibly manage without her Mum?

But page by page in this heart rending diary Lucie improves emotionally with every single letter she writes to her beloved Mum. Maybe, just maybe Mum will always be there to watch over them providing hope for the future after all.