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Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9781582462363
ISBN number: 1582462364
Label: Tricycle Press
Manufacturer: Tricycle Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 184
Printing Date: 2008-06
Publishing house: Tricycle Press
Age index: Ages 9-12
Sale Popularity Level: 1130817
Studio: Tricycle Press
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Product Description:
Before her mom leaves, she tells Rachel that her dad is a rock, the good kind you can always count on. Now, left alone with her emotionally distant father, Rachel has more questions than answers. Over time she learns the truth about her mom. But it's only when she learns the truth about her dad--the rock--that she can move toward understanding. This bittersweet story of loss and revelation reveals the powerful and complex bond between fathers and daughters.
'Readers will hug this book. I did.'
--LEE BENNETT HOPKINS
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Rated by buyers 
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The absence of a parent hurts, whatever its cause. In Hugging the Rock, Susan Taylour Brown cuts to the core of this anguish and lays bare the raw emotion of Rachel's experience after her mentally ill mother leaves home. The sparse words are laid out on the page in fits and starts, leaving plenty of white space where the reader can pause and let the feelings simmer. As Rachel comes to understand her mother's limitations, the reader is left with many questions about the mother-daughter relationship. But with mother gone, Rachel and her father forge a new bond that sets the world right again for Rachel and her readers. Kids who have to deal with the absence of a parent - whether because of illness, divorce, death, military deployment, or other causes - may find some solace as they see Rachel and her dad work things out. Readers looking for a different kind of story about parental absence might like Danger, Long Division, in which Becca develops a new relationship with her mother while her father serves his country in the Middle East.
Rated by buyers -
Hugging the Rock records the journey of a young girl, abandoned by her mentally ill mother, toward her distant father whom she comes to discover is her "rock." Through the direct, spare language of a preteen girl's poetry, the story expresses the process of a heart's shattering, hardening, opening, and then healing--offering testimony to the invincible, sovereign power of love.
Readers from all kinds of family circumstances will identify with Rachel and will cheer her on as she comes to the end of this journey. I hope she has many more for us to read!
Rated by buyers 
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Rachel's mother decides to run away. At least, that's how Rachel feels as she watches her mother pack up the car and drive away to parts unknown. After the dust settles, Rachel takes ownership of Madison, her mother's dog, stops doing her schoolwork, and has trouble talking to her father.
This story tackfully and truthfully discusses desertion and bipolar disorder as one young girl learns the truth about her mother. In losing her mother, Rachel is able connect with her father as she never has before. Readers will find hope and heart in these pages. The novel is written in verse, making it appealing to both aspiring young poets and reluctant readers. Recommended.
Rated by buyers -
Hugging the Rock is a fine and rare treasure. I read it straight through in one sitting because I just couldn't bear to stop until I knew what was going to happen. Susan Taylour Brown's free verse is so musical as one poem leads into the other that stopping midway through would be like turning off a beautiful song before the final note had sounded.
Rachel's mother never wanted her. That is the truth she begins to face as she watches her mother leave. For a while she hopes her mother will return but her emotions and school work plummet as she realizes that will not happen. She struggles to understand her mother's bipolar disorder and grieves for her loss.
Rachel and her father must learn about each other and rebuild their lives. In the beginning, they are not very successful but they don't give up on each other and ultimately Rachel discovers it has been her father who cherished, loved and wanted her from the very beginning.
The story is so uplifting and positive that is will resonate with readers long after they finish it. I know it has with me.
Rated by buyers -
This is the perfect story to be told in verse. Susan uses the negative space in her poems to strengthen words and emotions that wouldn't come across as powerfully had she used prose. This format gives the reader space to individually visualize the story, while feeling the pain and guilt and uncertainly that Rachel experiences as she comes to grip with her mother's abandonment. It's so great to see a book about single fathers. This fills a void for all those children who have this situation, but don't often see it represented in TV or movies. For all of the pain we feel at the beginning of the book, we feel just as much love in the relationship Rachel and her father build by the end of the story. A touching narrative.
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