Light and Air
by Mindy Nichols Wendell (Author)
When Halle and her mother both come down with TB, they are shunned—and then they are sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital: far from home, far from family, far from the world.
Tucked away in the woods of upstate New York, the hospital is a closed and quiet place. But it is not, Halle learns, a prison. Free of her worried and difficult father for the first time in her life, she slowly discovers joy, family, and the healing power of honey on the children's ward, where the girls on the floor become her confidantes and sisters. But when Mama suffers a lung hemorrhage, their entire future—and recovery—is thrown into question....
Light and Air deals tenderly and insightfully with isolation, quarantine, found family, and illness. Set in the fully realized world of a 1930s hospital, it offers a tender glimpse into a historical epidemic that has become more relatable than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Halle tries to warm her father’s coldness and learns to trust the girls and women of the hospital, and as she and her mother battle a disease that once paralyzed the country, a profound message of strength, hope, and healing emerges.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
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Publishers Weekly
Wendell's well-constructed historical debut, set in 1930s Upstate New York, chronicles six months of dramatic changes in fifth grader Hallelujah "Halle" Grace Newton's life as she and her family navigate the tuberculosis epidemic. When Halle's mother--whom Halle considers as her loving, steadfast lodestar, unlike her father, who always seems angry with her--contracts tuberculosis and is admitted to a sanatorium 20 miles away, Halle's life becomes a misery. She and her father test positive for the disease but remain asymptomatic; still, her schoolmates shun her. Her ill-conceived secret plan to walk to the sanatorium to be with her mother hastens Halle's budding case of pneumonia, resulting in her admittance as a patient, too. As Halle recovers, she bonds with other children in the ward, all of them undergoing "sun curing or air curing" treatments, but still pines for her mother, whose health is not improving. Via unflinching depictions of tragedy and strife, richly rendered period detail, and emotionally honest interpretations of parent-child relationships, Wendell builds satisfying suspense as Halle breaks facility rules to help her mother recover and struggles to win her father's affection. Historical notes conclude. Halle is white; supporting characters are racially diverse. Ages 8-12. (Jan.)
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JUV016150 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | United States - 20th Century
JUV074000 - Juvenile Fiction | Diversity & Multicultural
20th century
Historical fiction
Mothers and daughters
Self-realization
Hospitals
Medical fiction
Quarantine
Tuberculosis
Novels
Upstate New York (N.Y.)
Romans
