Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
by Dear Librarian
Can you imagine dying and going to a place totally different from what you expect? Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin, describes just this place. Liz Hall is fifteen when she dies. She was excited to turn sixteen and get her driver’s license. She was excited to continue high school and graduate. She wants to one day fall in love. But, now that she’s in Elsewhere, she has to get used to a whole new reality–a reality in which you grow younger with each day until the day you are a baby, close to your birth when you are born all over again.
This was the best book I read last year. It was remarkable! It’s true; this book is about a tough subject–the Holocaust, but the narrator of this story (Death) speaks about this subject in such a pragmatic way that the reader isn’t left emotionally drained. Rather, the reader is spellbound eager to see what will happen to all the dynamic characters of this story. Tears will be shed in the end, but the tears are worthwhile, tender tears of the joys and happiness that were felt during this harrow time. 