Every time I read Alice Hoffman, I am amazed at the way she writes. Every color is a feeling, every feeling is palpable. This book made me want to weep and sigh and smile all within its short 116 pages. And the artwork on the cover and bookjacket....amazing.
I couldn't recommend this to enough people. Her stories are like fairy tales...you almost can't believe what she's writing, and yet you can...and you're better for having read it....

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I believe this is a book geared towards young adults, but I really think anyone could enjoy it. Written after the tragedy of September 11th the story takes place in a no-name town that could be Anywhere, USA. Obviously based on 9/11 happenings, it's the story of what happens to a girl when she has to fend for herself and make a new family.

It's a very magical and surreal story, the wording and language makes you feel as if you are in a dream. It's very poetic, yet as you are reading it you understand that she is writing about real life.

I would definitely recommend it.

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Green, a 15-year-old, with a wonderful family, makes everything grow. She can whisper to the plants, hear them and surpasses her mother in plant knowledge. She is quiet, unassuming and prefers to stay in the background. In contrast, her sister, Aurora, sparkles and stands out. The two love each other very much and spend much time together.

One day when it is time to take garden harvest to the city Green must stay at home and work in the gardens. Angry, she refuses to speak to her parents even when they and her sister say goodbye. She pouts most of the day and does little work. Suddenly she sees smoke which becomes a raging fire which rages through the city. Are her parents and Aurora safe she wonders. When they do not return she realizes that all of them have died in the blaze.

Guilt ridden, she begins to draw black tattoos on her skin, hides and sleeps under the table, and refuses to care for the garden. She is not alone in her grief. There are others who react in other ways. This is the story of Green's grief which almost consumes her as it did her school mate, Heather. This is a sensitive and
heart-warming tale about a young woman who must learn to cope without the family she loves so much. Well done!

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Reviewed by AdrienneBe for TeensReadToo.com

Green, who was always in the shadows and worked in the garden, is hit with a terrible reality. Her father, mother, and sister were all killed in the city when it was destroyed.

Now living on her own and trying to cope with her changed world, Green begins to fall. She wears all black and begins to ink herself in order to remember her family and what she has lost. Through a boy named Diamond, her neighbor, and an intelligent dog called Ghost, Green is finally able to get through and remember who she really is.

With all that has happened, Green learns that punishing yourself isn't a form of remembering, but moving on is.

Hoffman writes with a clear and silent insight, as if she is looking back at a terrible past with the memories still burning underneath her lids. I remember reading this book a few years back and even now I know the impression it left on me. Wanting to read this book again wasn't because I just enjoyed the story, but because it taught me something that neither my parents nor anyone I knew had ever told me about - what happens to you after someone you love dies.

I'm so glad that my love of reading gave me this insight before anything like this ever happened to me in a less dramatic situation, and therefore I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wants to learn more about the human heart.

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