Slog's Dad

Gr 5—8—The spring after Davie's friend Slog loses his father, the two boys encounter a man on a bench whom Slog believes to be his dad, returned from heaven. The narrative then recounts the man's illness, which included multiple amputations, and his death. Originally written as a short prose piece, Almond's story has been not so much illustrated, but framed and given visual sequences that amplify and reinforce the boy's grief. McKean combines paint, photography, and some digital manipulation to create some very tonal and evocative extensions. This technique is effective, but it also makes the collaboration more emotionally abstract than a simple story. But complexity and abstraction can also engender ambiguity, and it's difficult to say for certain how readers are supposed to feel about the doubts Davie expresses about Slog's dad's veracity, or the way that Almond mixes the mundane and the supernatural. The Savage (Candlewick, 2008), the pair's earlier collaboration, was a fairly clear-cut tale of magical realism, identity, and wish-fulfillment, but the focus on mourning here makes the resolution more difficult to pin down. There's an honesty to it, just as there is a raw, emotive honesty to McKean's illustrations, even if it's sometimes delayed until the context for them comes like a punch in Almond's next text section. This is a strangely incomplete, but fascinating work that may leave readers uncomfortable with the sudden ending. But for those who have dealt with the lack of closure that intertwines with loss, this will be a particularly resonant book.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH