The Blue Sky

This is another message board post, one I wrote for my Children's Literature class, reflecting on the book The Blue Sky, by Andrea Petrlik Huseinović. You can read the book online here.

This book really hit me. While I’ve never had a parent die, I did come from a home where I was abused both physically and mentally, so despite having a completely different starting point, I was really able to relate to the girl, her sadness, and her longing for happiness and a sense of belonging. 

The book made me reflect on my own life, and my own past. Much like the girl, I sometimes struggle to remember the good times. While I don’t forgive my family for the way I was treated, I do know that there were some happy memories mixed in with all the negativity. I felt glad that the girl was able to remember so much good, and to hopefully find that happiness and sense of love again at the end. If someone knew my experiences, they may wonder if I was jealous of the girl for maybe finding that happiness again, but I’m not. I’m a parent myself now, and the book made me want to really make sure that any happiness that I missed out on is given to my own children ten-fold.

I thought the main character was a fantastic representation of the feeling of sadness and loneliness that we have surely all felt at some point in our lives. Maybe not all of us have lost a loved one. Maybe we are too young, or we didn’t have anyone close to us when we were children. Maybe we came from an incredibly sheltered home, and our parents were incredibly doting and did everything to make us happy. The fact though is, life is not always happiness. We all have sadness in us, we all have sad experiences. But we all must find a way to take this sadness and grow. Don’t let it fester. It will be a drain on your whole life. I believe the girl realized this at the end.

I think the author was trying to make the reader understand that one event does not define your life. The book starts with the girl, only reflecting her sadness. She is defined by the loss of her mother. Through the book, however, we learn of all the little events that the girl and her mother experienced together. The girl reflects on her happy experiences with her mother, and how they shaped and affected the lives of the animals they helped through their actions. It made the girl realize that she is not defined by her sadness alone, even if it is a part of her. She starts off as a one sided character and by the end, becomes whole.

The way the author wrote reminded me a lot of my own writing style, which I appreciated. Her writing in this book focused less on concrete information and facts, and more on a sense of feeling and experience. It reminded me a lot of the memoirs I enjoy reading, which focus less on what happened and what order, and more on how the experiences shaped the writer.