Love, Aubrey was a difficult novel for me to read. The main character is Aubrey, an eleven-year-old girl. Not so very unusual as far as the Caudills go. The majority of the characters are eleven and close to half will be girls. I happen to have an eleven-year-old daughter, but until this novel, that really hadn’t affected my reading of children’s literature. Aubrey has a mom and a dad, also very much like our own family, and Aubrey is Daddy’s girl. That perhaps is also true for us. Hmmm. Aubrey has a younger sister, Savannah, who is four years younger. I also have a younger daughter who is four years younger than big sister. Still, I wasn’t affected, but the story hadn’t warmed up yet.
Most of the tragedy has already occurred before the novel starts. At the beginning, we have Aubrey, living alone in her home. She is surviving on cheese and crackers, but realizes that the pantry is now empty. She will have to use her birthday money from her grandmother to purchase groceries – SpaghettiOs. Aubrey seems a little disoriented and confused, depressed, but there is one thing she is absolutely clear in the head about. She must lay low and not draw attention to herself. She doesn’t answer the doorbell. She doesn’t answer the phone. No one should know that she is alone or she will be taken away. She must survive until her mother returns. Surely her mother will return.
When her grandmother arrives, the truth is finally revealed, little by little. Aubrey has lost her father and sister in a tragic auto accident that Aubrey and her mother survived. Grams was there for them during the weeks after the accident and the funeral, but returned home so Aubrey and her mother could start the healing process. Unfortunately, they were both left alone too soon. Every day, Aubrey’s mother sunk deeper and deeper into depression. Gradually, she stopped seeing her own daughter and interacting with her until one day, she just got up and left without telling Aubrey.
Here was the hard part for me… Aubrey’s mother is affectionately called “Lissie” by Grandmother. Lissy is my nickname. All of a sudden, it was my family. My youngest was gone. My husband was gone. And my big girl is abandoned.
Aubrey loves her mother, understands her mother, wants to protect her mother and still feels so much anger towards her mother that she finds she cannot talk about it. But she wants to wait for her mother’s return. She does not want to leave Virginia and go to Vermont to live with her grandmother. She wants to stay at the scene of her most recent happiness. She does not want to live in a place filled with memories of family. Aubrey has no choice. She goes to live with Grams.
Grams experiences her own hurt as she struggles to find her own daughter and bring her home. In the meantime, she has to provide a certain order and organization for Aubrey. She enrolls her in school, gives her lists of chores, and encourages her to make friends with the girl next door. Her mistake is becoming the parent and losing the carefree grandparent relationship with Aubrey. With the help of a counselor at school, Aubrey shows Grams the way it used to be.
The same counselor helps Aubrey by giving her mini hurdles to cross. Aubrey expresses herself through letters written to Jillian, Savannah’s imaginary friend. Eventually, she learns to write those letters to the people she really wants to talk to.
A tragic and heart wrenching story, especially for me. Very well written and Aubrey has an authentic voice. I was delighted with the ending. It shows that it is all right to takes things one step at a time. Recommended for tweenage girls.
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