Elsewhere
CCBC Review:
Liz Hall has died. “Elsewhere,” Liz soon learns, is what happens next. Gabrielle Zevin’s quirky, funny and tender story is about a fifteen-year-old who must mourn the family and friends she has left behind—and the future she has lost-- before she is able to notice that life is going on, if not quite as she expected. People in Elsewhere continue to age, but in reverse, the years rolling back one by one until they’re infants ready to be reborn. Liz’s grandmother (dead at 50; now 34) died before Liz was born, but now they are getting to know each other. Liz gets a job doing something she loves—working with (recently deceased) animals. Love is even in the air after Liz meets Owen (dead at 26, now 17), who teaches Liz how to drive. Liz and Owen’s budding relationship is temporarily sidetracked when Owen’s beloved wife dies (they’re reunited but it doesn’t work out. Life—and death—has changed them both too much). And so Liz and Owen are free to grow young together as Liz comes to understand that death is another dimension of life, and it, too, is surely worth living. ©2006 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Death and Dying
Fantasy
Grandmothers
Grief and Loss
Humor
Love and Romance
Publisher:
Farrar Straus Giroux
Publish Year: 2005
Pages: 275
ISBN: 0374320918
CCBC Location: Fiction, Zevin