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Miracles surround Wunder. A miracle baby who saw the wonderful and the miraculous every where he went. Just happy, ordinary lad who saw the good in life. Then tragedy struck and Wunder was lost, his whole family is lost. What is to happen with Wunder? In The Miraculous we see the help that Wunder receives.
From the Cover
Eleven-year-old Wunder Ellis is a miracologist. In a journal he calls The Miraculous, he records stories of the inexplicable and the extraordinary. And he believes every single one. But then his newborn sister dies, at only eight days old. If that can happen, then miracles can’t exist. So Wunder gets rid of The Miraculous. He stops believing.
Then he meets Faye – a cape-wearing, outspoken girl with losses of her own. Together, they find an abandoned house by the cemetery and a mysterious old woman who just might be a witch. The old woman asks them for their help. She asks them to believe. And they go on a journey that leads to friendship, to adventure, to healing – and to miracles.
My Thoughts
When I started The Miraculous I was hooked. I wanted to know what would happen with Wunder, and what’s with the weird house? Then odd-ball Faye showed up, and old friends made decisions and I just wanted to know what would happen.
I enjoyed most of the story, the pain and confusion, the muddling through grief, the aloneness of a child lost in grief with parents lost in their grief. So many different faces of grief seen throughout the pages of this quiet reading tome.
I do need to offer up a caution. Some of the views on death and heaven are a bit… odd. If you are of the Protestant or Catholic faith you might want to read the book before handing it to your children. Discussions with family members over matters of faith are always good to have. 🙂 It made me feel good, to read over the couple of pages I found troublesome with my lad, and he was able to articulate clearly what my concerns were.
It’s a quiet, solemn read with moments of laughter. Oh.. some of the lines made me hoot! But overall, how a person handles grief is very individual to them. Sometimes in the process a person gets a bit lost, and when a whole family grieves, sometimes they need to grieve together to bring healing. A tender, quiet reading book that had me interested from start to finish.
The Miraculous.
Jess Redman
Farrar Straus Giroux
Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Upper Elementary
Death, Miracles, Grief, Child Loss
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
Sounds like a strange, funky book.
it was strange, but a compelling read.