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Getting Near to Baby
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Getting Near to Baby Paperback - 2001

by Audrey Couloumbis

In this 2000 Newbery Honor Book, two girls are sent to live with their strict aunt after their baby sister dies. Aunt Patty is trying as hard as she can, but she doesn't really understand what Willa Jo and Little Sister are trying to deal with until the morning the two girls climb up to the roof of her house and refuse to come down.


Summary

A Southern charmer for fans of Newbery Honor book Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Audrey Couloumbis's masterful debut novel brings to mind Karen Hesse, Katherine Paterson, and Betsy Byars's The Summer of the Swans—it is a story you will never forget. 

Willa Jo and Little Sister are up on the roof at Aunt Patty’s house. Willa Jo went up to watch the sunrise, and Little Sister followed, like she always does. But by mid-morning, they are still up on that roof, and soon it’s clear it wasn’t just the sunrise that brought them there. 

The trouble is, coming down would mean they’d have to explain, and they just can’t find the words. 

This is a funny, sometimes heartbreaking, story about sisters, about grief, and about healing.  Two girls must come to terms with the death of their baby sister, their mother’s unshakable depression, and the ridiculously controlling aunt who takes them in and means well but just doesn’t understand children. Willa Jo has to try and make things right in their new home, but she and Aunt Patty keep butting heads. Until the morning the two girls climb up to the roof of her house. Aunt Patty tries everything she can think of to get them down, but in the end, the solution is miraculously simple.

A Newbery Honor Book

An ALA Notable Book

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

From the publisher

Audrey Couloumbis was born in Illinois. Her book Getting Near to Baby was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2000.

First line

Aunt Patty is fed up with me.

Details

  • Title Getting Near to Baby
  • Author Audrey Couloumbis
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 224
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Puffin Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date August 27, 2001
  • ISBN 9780698118928 / 0698118928
  • Weight 0.38 lbs (0.17 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.78 x 5.08 x 0.6 in (19.76 x 12.90 x 1.52 cm)
  • Ages 10 to UP years
  • Grade levels 5 - UP
  • Reading level 740
  • Themes
    • Topical: Death/Dying
  • Library of Congress subjects Death, Sisters
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 99018191
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Excerpt

Things don't feel right here.

I want to open my eyes in the morning to see my very own wallpaper with the tiny blue flowers and pink rosebuds. Aunt Patty does not believe in putting up wallpaper, not even in the bathroom. She says mold grows behind it.

I want Mom to read to us for an hour before bedtime, all of us in a clump like alligators in the sun so we can all look at the pictures together. Aunt Patty tucks us into bed before it is even full dark. We want our mom. We're worried about her having to sleep all alone. We worry that she doesn't eat right, now that she doesn't have us to feed. We miss her.

I hear Aunt Patty's bossy voice, rousing Uncle Hob out of his bed. She's telling him he has to come outside to order us down. Or to plead with us, whichever he thinks will work. That sad feeling I have hardens into a mad feeling and I don't think I'll ever get down off this roof. I'll stay here till kingdom comes.

Media reviews

Citations

  • Ingram Children's Advance, 07/01/2001, Page 52
  • Publishers Weekly, 07/16/2001, Page 183

About the author

Audrey Couloumbis was born in Illinois. Her book Getting Near to Baby was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2000.
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Getting Near to Baby
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Getting Near to Baby

by Audrey Couloumbis

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Getting Near to Baby (2000 Newbery Honor Book)
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Getting Near to Baby (2000 Newbery Honor Book)
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