Available:*
Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Alpaugh Branch Library (Tulare Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Fiction Area | FIC NAVIN RHIANNON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Arvin Branch Library (Kern Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | FIC NAVIN RHI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Clovis Branch Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction Area | NAVIN RH Only | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fig Garden Branch (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction Area | NAVIN RH Only | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Livingston Branch Library (Merced Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | FIC NAV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mariposa Branch Library (Mariposa Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction Area | FIC NAV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Merced Main Library (Merced Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Non-Fiction | FIC NAV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tehachapi Branch Library (Kern Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | FIC NAVIN RHI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tulare Public Library | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | Navin | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tulare Public Library | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | Navin, Rhiannon | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Visalia Library (Tulare Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Fiction Area | FIC NAVIN RHIANNON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodward Park Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction Area | NAVIN RH Only | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
" Only Child triumphs. Zach, at only 6 years old, understands more about the human heart than the broken adults around him. His hope and optimism as he sets out to execute his plan will have every reader cheering him on, and believing in happy endings even in the face of such tragedy. . . . Navin manages to make Zach's voice heartbreakingly believable."--Ann Hood, The Washington Post
"Perfect for fans of Room ... a heartbreaking but important novel." -- Real Simple
Readers of Jodi Picoult and Liane Moriarty will also like this tenderhearted debut about healing and family, narrated by an unforgettable six-year-old boy who reminds us that sometimes the littlest bodies hold the biggest hearts and the quietest voices speak the loudest.
Squeezed into a coat closet with his classmates and teacher, first grader Zach Taylor can hear gunshots ringing through the halls of his school. A gunman has entered the building, taking nineteen lives and irrevocably changing the very fabric of this close-knit community. While Zach's mother pursues a quest for justice against the shooter's parents, holding them responsible for their son's actions, Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art. Armed with his newfound understanding, and with the optimism and stubbornness only a child could have, Zach sets out on a captivating journey towards healing and forgiveness, determined to help the adults in his life rediscover the universal truths of love and compassion needed to pull them through their darkest hours.
Author Notes
Rhiannon Navin grew up in Bremen, Germany, in a family of book-crazy women. Her career in advertising brought her to New York, where she worked for several large agencies before becoming a full-time mother and writer. She now lives outside New York City with her husband, three children, two cats, and a dog. This is her first novel.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Navin's gripping debut opens with first grader Zach Taylor huddling in a closet with his teacher and classmates while shots and screams echo in his school's corridors. After the shooting, Zach's parents' frantically search for Andy, Zach's older brother, only to discover that he is one of the victims. Zach's gradual comprehension of the tragedy includes his bewilderment when people bring food to his house, which he thinks of as an unseemly party. As he works through his memories of Andy, he comes to an aching realization of the depth of his loss. His parents are too preoccupied with their own grief to notice Zach's anguish or to bring him to therapy. He takes refuge in books, reading hidden in Andy's bedroom closet, and is the bystander to his mother's nervous volatility and his father's adulterous liaison. When his mother resolves to bring a lawsuit against the parents of the boy who wielded the gun, in spite of the fact that the two families have had a longtime friendly relationship, Zach conceives a dangerous "mission" to bring healing to his parents and the community. Those who can handle the difficult subject matter will find the plot to be a page-turner; Navin also excels in brilliantly capturing Zach's perspective. 125,000-copy announced first printing. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Things were bad enough in the Taylor household even before unthinkable tragedy struck. Before Andy Taylor was gunned down at his elementary school, he was afflicted by oppositional defiant disorder, which leads to violent tempers, and Dad had been having an affair with a neighbor. Now that Andy is gone, one of 19 confirmed dead in the attack, his family, including Andy's younger brother, Zach, are understandably having difficulty coping with the aftermath of searing loss. First-grader Zach narrates Navin's heart-wrenching debut, and his innocent voice effectively grounds the story. He watches as his mother launches a mission in pursuit of justice, and as his parents grow increasingly distant from each other. As Zach struggles to make sense of the increasing thunderstorms between Mom and Dad, leaning on the Magic Tree House books and the Hulk to give him some perspective, Navin adds layers of (occasionally cloying) complexity. Navin explores the intersection between violence and mental illness in this important and timely book.--Apte, Poornima Copyright 2018 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
In this gut-wrenching debut novel, readers meet Zachary Taylor, a first grader, just as his 10-year-old brother is gunned down in a school shooting. The book begins with Zach and his classmates hiding in the classroom closet with their terrified teacher. That experience is riveting, as is the following account of a family, broken by needless violence, desperately trying to cope. Zach's murdered brother, Andy, was a difficult child, who had oppositional defiant disorder and, as a result, anger and behavior issues. His parents grieve, but Zach is initially glad that his mean brother is not around anymore. However, the gentle themes of loyalty, love, and good versus evil found in Zach's favorite books, Mary Pope Osborne's "The Magic Treehouse" series, resonate for Zach and help him to understand that his family had issues because of Andy's behavioral problems, but they all loved Andy regardless. The first-person narration reflects six-year-old Zach's limited perspective of the world. Teens may initially find the somewhat stilted language distracting, but they will soon become absorbed. Zach's voice and his parents' emotions are genuine. On a par with John Green's evocative writing, Navin's tale can be a difficult read. But this work is an important reflection of the culture, with school shootings as commonplace as they are. VERDICT For teens who appreciate intense emotional stories and those who feel compelled to read about this new normal, such as in Marieke -Nijkamp's This Is Where It Ends.-Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The aftermath of a school shooting, told from the point of view of a first-grader who hid with his class in a closet while his 10-year-old brother and 18 others were massacred."The thing I later remembered the most about the day the gunman came was my teacher Miss Russell's breath. It was hot and smelled like coffee.POP POP POP. It sounded a lot like the sounds from the Star Wars game I sometimes play on the Xbox." Like Emma Donoghue's Room, Navin's debut takes the risk of narrating a gruesome modern tragedy in the voice of a very young player. At 6, Zach Taylor comes only slowly to understand what has happened that day at school. He is with his mother at the hospital waiting to see if his brother, Andy, is among the wounded when his father arrives. "Daddy's face was like a grayish color, and his mouth looked all funny, with his lower lip pulled down so I could see his teeth.First Mommy's eyes got really big, and then her whole self started shaking and she started acting crazy. She yelled, 'Jim? Oh my God, no no no no no no no no no!'" Because Andy had oppositional defiant disorder and was routinely unkind to him, Zach wonders at first if perhaps his death will be an improvement. During what he perceives as the "party" that goes on at his house after the massacre, he sequesters himself in his brother's closet and imagines life as an only child. "Like they could both come to my piano recitals and they could both stay for the whole time." Soon he sees just how wrong he is, as every cherished ritual of his life is pitched overboard, his mother changes into someone he doesn't know, and he is tormented by nightmares and uncontrollable rages. Since his parents are preoccupied to the point of cruelty and don't get him professional help, he is on his own in figuring out how to cope. His touching tactics include assigning colors to his feelings and making paintings of them and studying the "secrets of happiness" purveyed in the Magic Treehouse series. Seems like a lot of people, and not just the ones in this novel, need to reread those books.A powerful exercise in empathy and perspective. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
When her five-year-old twins began practicing lockdown procedures in kinder-garten, Navin channeled her fearful helplessness into writing what would become her debut novel. Six-year-old Zach's memories of the "POP POP POP" he hears from inside his first-grade classroom closet remind him of a video game. In reality, those POPs claim 19 lives, including that of his ten-year-old brother, Andy. Navin's decision to narrate the horrific aftermath from Zach's youthful, raw perspective is -ideally enhanced by child actor Kivlighan de Monte-bello's wrenching performance as he transitions seamlessly from cautious to questioning to screaming to acceptance. Zach is shattered by his mother's withdrawal; he can't understand her animosity against the shooter's parents, who were, until this tragedy, beloved community members. He's troubled by his -father's mysterious inter-actions with the mother of another dead child. He's guilty over his initial relief because being Andy's little brother wasn't always easy. Before his family completely implodes, Zach devises an "urgent mission"-inspired by Magic Tree House book #37's four secrets of happiness-to repair his fracturing family. VERDICT Published a mere week before the February 14, 2018, Parkland, FL, massacre, this work's shocking timeliness will result in demand in all formats. ["A tough, topical story with a hopeful conclusion for the family, this is a strong book club choice": LJ 1/18 starred review of the Knopf hc; a Spring Editor's Pick, LJ 2/1/18, p. 31.]-Terry Hong, -Smithsonian -BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.