Module 14: Rubber Houses

Bibliography

Yeomans, E. (2007). Rubber houses.

New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Summary

Everything is going typically well for sixteen-year-old Kit and her family.  Then tragedy strikes in the form of cancer, which her brother, Buddy, is diagnosed with.  The free verse prose takes the reader through treatment and the eventual death of her brother.  Kit's mother and dad deal with the death in different ways, as they leave her to deal with the tragedy virtually on her own.  Finally, Kit begins group therapy and eventually begins to do volunteer work, which becomes her respite. Kit and Buddy had always had a love for baseball, so in the end Kit goes to the ballpark to tell Buddy goodbye. 

My Impression
This was a very sober look at a seemingly carefree time in a young girl's life.  It helped me to realize that regardless of how some young adults appear, there may be, and probably is, more going on underneath the surface.  I lost my husband to a sudden heart attack twelve years ago and this book brought back many of the emotions my children and I went through.  Yeomans did a great at portraying the common human emotions we have at a time of loss.

Review

School Library Journal

"Kit is in junior high school when her younger brother is diagnosed with cancer. Despite the difference in their ages, they are kindred spirits who share a love of baseball. When Buddy looses his battle with the disease, Kit is devastated. Suddenly her family no longer functions as a whole. Instead they are like "...islands/too distant to matter." The teen must find a way to own her grief in order to mourn Buddy but at the same time celebrate the characteristics and quirks that constituted his presence in her life.  Written in economical and accessible verse, this novel follows the pattern of the  baseball season. Despite major holes in the characterization of Kit and Buddy, this slim work speaks volumes about the grieving process. Yeomans has very precisely selected her words to convey the fear and the grief that Kit feels. As with baseball, even though it seems like Buddy's death has brought everything to a halt, winter does end, and spring training will begin again. This novel will fit nicely beside Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust (Scholastic, 1997) and Nikki Grimes Dark Sons (Hyperion, 2005)."
Use in Library
Unfortunately, tragedy occurs nearly every school year.  I believe this book would be a good one to share during, perhaps, a unit on poetry, although I do not think it necessarily should be put off until such a unit occurs in lesson planning.  Rubber houses is a good example of free verse literature, but more importantly to me, it is a good example of mourning.  Students could be asked to share their feelings, if they desire, about a tragedy in their life that was hard to overcome.  This possibly might help others in the grieving process.  

Review. (2007, March 1l). [Review of the book Rubber houses, by Ellen Yeomans]. School Library Journal. Available from: http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=14&sid=2a63f63f-5b10-42fa-87f5-ed93a0a707d7%40sessionmgr10