This is the touching story of a young girl whose life comes to a close much to early; however, this is not a story about her death but about what happens after. Riley has a difficult time moving beyond the Earth plane, but with the help of her loving dog Buttercup she finally arrives in the Here and Now, only to discover that her life is far from over.

Riley and Buttercup have been given a job, as soul catchers. Their first assignment is the "Radiant boy", a ghost that has been haunting an ancient English castle for centuries. Can Riley and Buttercup succeed and help the Radiant boy find his way to the bridge to Here and Now?

I picked this book up because my 5th grade girls seem to have a penchant for the supernatural and other-worldly type stories. This book has many good messages in it like acceptance of yourself for who you are and never, ever judging a book by it's cover.

If you have a young reader who enjoys these kinds of stories, I recommend Radiance.

Each Little Bird That Sings

I just finished reading this as part of a reading discussion group with my 5th grade girls. With both groups, the boys and the girls, it is amazing how much that I felt that I learned from each of these books.

Each Little Bird that Sings is the story of Comfort Snowberger, a 10 year old girl whose family runs the local funeral home. In the course of her short life, Comfort has been to 247 funerals.
Even so, the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto. This is the story of those events.

Every one of my girls in the discussion group has lost a loved one, as I myself lost my dad this past year. It was amazing how insightful this book was in dealing with death. I don't want this comment to put the reader off though because this book isn't about death, it's about life. This book is moving, insightful and inspiring. Even as an adult it will be a long time before I forget Comfort and her family and the lessons that I learned will stay with me always.

For my girls, I think that this book was very helpful in assisting them deal with losses in their life, their outlook on death and even how to handle peer pressure or difficulties with a friend. After all, death isn't the only loss we endure in this life and each loss results in it's own sort of grief. Life is full of little ( and big!) surprises and it's how we handle them that matters...

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"It's not how you die that makes the important impression, Comfort; it's how you live. Now go live a while, honey, and let me get back to work."

Everything, even death, served us, according to him. Everything had a grand purpose, and there was nothing amiss in the universe; it was our job to adjust to whatever came our way.

I think those two quotes are full of wise insight that all of us can apply to everyday life. I would highly recommend Each Little Bird That Sings to anyone... but especially to those in the age group of 9- 15 dealing with the loss of a loved one or pet.