The Half-Orphan's Handbook

by Joan F. Smith

Overview

For fans of John Green and Emily X.R. Pan, The Half-Orphan's Handbook by Joan F. Smith is a coming-of-age story and an empathetic, authentic exploration of grief with a sharp sense of humor and a big heart.

It’s been three months since Lila lost her father to suicide. Since then, she’s learned to protect herself from pain by following two unbreakable rules:

1. The only people who can truly hurt you are the ones you love. Therefore, love no one.

2. Stay away from liars. Liars are the worst.

But when Lila’s mother sends her to a summer-long grief camp, it’s suddenly harder for Lila to follow these rules. Potential new friends and an unexpected crush threaten to drag her back into life for the first time since her dad’s death.

On top of everything, there’s more about what happened that Lila doesn’t know, and facing the truth about her family will be the hardest part of learning how a broken heart can love again.

An Imprint Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250624697
Publisher:	Imprint
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Joan F. Smith lives with her family in Massachusetts, where she works as an associate dean, a creative writing professor, and a dance instructor. She received her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and has written articles for The Washington Post and Thought Catalog on destigmatizing discussions around mental health and suicide prevention. The Half-Orphan's Handbook is her debut novel.
Joan F. Smith is the author of The Other Side of Infinity and The Half-Orphan's Handbook, a dance instructor, and a former associate dean of creative writing. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Joan lives and writes in Massachusetts, where she was the 2021 Writer-in-Residence at the Milton Public Library. When she's not writing, she's either wrangling her kids, embarking on a new hobby she will quickly abandon, or listening to podcasts on a run.

Editorial Reviews

"A tender, honest exploration of finding a way through the impossible." —Kirkus

"This debut novel’s believable characters make plain that suffering the loss of a loved one while young is difficult, and common." —School Library Journal

"A beautifully written, funny, heart brimming story about a young woman's tragic loss, the hard work and grace of healing and the irrepressible force of love." —Francisco X. Stork, award-winning author of The Memory of Light

"The Half-Orphan’s Handbook is a masterclass in prose and character. Laugh and cry along with Lila and Noah as they navigate the complex space between tragedy and hope. Moving. Important. Beautiful.” —Laura Taylor Namey, author of A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

From the Publisher

03/01/2021

Gr 9 Up—Lila Cunningham's father is dead. She jokes about this as if she's playing a game of Clue: "The father, in the woods, with a rope." But David, her father, wasn't murdered: He took his own life. Like many protagonists—especially women—of trauma novels, Lila quips large. She shows more depth during an argument with her mother, Jenny, about going to Bonaventure grief camp, which Mom gently but firmly asserts is a healing place. Mortified after angrily blaming Jenny for David's death, Lila apologizes for her outburst and attends. The Cunninghams can't afford Bonaventure's steep tuition, so Aunt Shelly pays it. Lila is a track star and top hurdler, and at camp she meets Deese, an athlete she recognizes from home, and her acceptance of his help in training signals Lila's desire to return to "normal" life. Camp offers friendship, though Lila wants answers. Learning, for example, that unlike a fatal accident or illness, suicide is a "preventable" death, doesn't explain how David could have decided to abandon his family. What does help is beginning to learn secrets about her dad, including his gambling addiction, reminding readers how addiction changes people—and how overwhelming and destructive it can be. Lila is white, Deese is Black, and her other friends at camp have various skin tones. VERDICT Set in a New England grief camp, this debut novel's believable characters make plain that suffering the loss of a loved one while young is difficult, and common.—Georgia Christgau, LaGuardia Community Coll., Long Island City, NY

School Library Journal

2021-01-26
A young woman spends the summer at a camp for grieving kids and teens in this realistic fiction offering.

High school junior Lila, her younger brother, Sammy, and their mother are awash in raw pain and confusion after her father dies by suicide. A counselor suggests Lila and Sammy try Camp Bonaventure in Maine, which is designed for youth who have experienced the death of a close family member. Lila’s introspective first-person narration strikes a tone that is spot-on, mixing her grief and bewilderment with flares of anger and overwhelming frustration. Initially resistant to the idea of camp and worried about how her family will afford it, she falls into staying for the whole summer and progressively grows to find it helpful, forges strong friendships with other campers, and finds first love and sexual experience with Noah. Noah’s own complicated loss is foreshadowed throughout but not explained until the end in a reveal that some readers may anticipate but that still finds its way to emotional resonance. The novel takes its time, showing the messy intricacies of grief and how people contending with it react and cope in different ways, ultimately ending on an auspicious note. Lila and her family are White; there is some mention of diversity in secondary characters.

A tender, honest exploration of finding a way through the impossible. (author's note, resource list) (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews