THE GREAT BLUE YONDER

What’s it like when you’re dead? Do you go to Heaven or Hell? Do you become a ghost? Eleven-year old Harry learns the answers to these elemental questions when he’s killed by a truck and finds himself wandering in the Other Lands with his new friend Arthur. The Other Lands are a pleasant place, with trees, fields, and a constantly setting sun, but Harry wonders what those signs pointing to the Great Blue Yonder might be. Arthur has a story of his own. He’s been wandering the Other Lands for 150 years, searching for his mother. Eventually, Arthur leads Harry back down to Earth for “some haunting,” and Harry visits his old school and his family. There, Harry finds a way to resolve the issue that’s been holding him back from the Great Blue Yonder: his last argument with his sister just before he died. It’s a novel, intriguing idea for a children’s story, and Shearer (The Summer Sisters and the Dance Disaster, 1998, etc.) grounds his narrative in Harry’s experiences without much reference to religious concepts. He focuses on major issues for children, such as what their friends think of them and the underlying love that exists even between battling siblings. Much of the narrative is repetitious, but young readers will likely find the whole concept, and Harry’s adventures, fascinating. (Fiction. 10-14)