Title: Light and Air
Author: Mindy Nichols Wendell
Major Themes: Tuberculosis, Hospitals, New York
Synopsis: When Halle and her mother were both confined to a tuberculosis hospital, what could Halle do to reunite her family and help her mother recover?
What do I look for when I’m choosing children’s books to read and review? I shy away from fantasy, environmental issues, and time travel. I prefer to read stories of real people, or historical fiction that doesn’t add in a fantasy element. However, it’s getting hard to find historical fiction that doesn’t include time travel or fantasy. So, when I saw the cover of Light and Air, and it looked like a realistic story, I clicked on it. Sure enough, it sounded like realistic historical fiction—and it was about a time and experience I had never read very much about! So, I requested it, and when I started reading it, I did not want to put this book down.
Publisher’s description:
It’s 1935, and tuberculosis is ravaging the nation. Everyone is afraid of this deadly respiratory illness. But what happens when you actually have it? When Halle and her mother both come down with TB, they are shunned—and then they are sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital: far from home, far from family, far from the world. Tucked away in the woods of upstate New York, the hospital is a closed and quiet place. But it is not, Halle learns, a prison. Free of her worried and difficult father for the first time in her life, she slowly discovers joy, family, and the healing power of honey on the children’s ward, where the girls on the floor become her confidantes and sisters. But when Mama suffers a lung hemorrhage, their entire future—and recovery—is thrown into question.…
Light and Air deals tenderly and insightfully with isolation, quarantine, found family, and illness. Set in the fully realized world of a 1930s hospital, it offers a tender glimpse into a historical epidemic that has become more relatable than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Halle tries to warm her father’s coldness and learns to trust the girls and women of the hospital, and as she and her mother battle a disease that once paralyzed the country, a profound message of strength, hope, and healing emerges.
My thoughts:
I really appreciated the tone of Light and Air. While Halle is not always obedient, she does respect the adults in her life and is willing to admit she was wrong when she realizes that she did something she shouldn’t have. She experiences a lot of hard things while at the hospital, but she also experiences love and acceptance. I appreciated the glimpse into the treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics. It was sad to read about how Halle was treated when her schoolmates learned that her mother had the disease; it was a vivid picture of how people are afraid of what they don’t know. I also loved the way she tried to reunite her family and get along better with her father. Though she made some wrong choices along the way, overall Halle wanted to do what was right, help her mother to heal, and get her family back together again. This is a book that I am adding to the list of ones to read aloud to my children.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.
WARNING: A few times Halle disobeyed. At one point a girl died.
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 5 – 8, 8 – 12, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Kindle | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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