Wenny Has Wings © 2002 Janet Lee Carey
Atheneum Books for Young Readers ISBN: 0-689-84294-5
Kirkus Review
- June 2002
A gentle epistolary novel requiring at least three hankies. Eleven-year-old Will writes to his seven-year-old sister Wenny. A truck hit them both on
their way to a craft store, and Wenny was killed. Will remembers a dark tunnel
and a bright warm light; he remembers seeing his little sister fly past him into
that light. Through months of healing his broken parts, Will writes to Wenny
about how much he misses her; about how angry he is that she left them; about
how pinched and cold his father and his pregnant mother are; and how there is no
light or air around them, and no words for him. The tropes of boyhood - family
pets, toy action figures, a tree house, a spitting contest, and above all, the
creek tunnel the kids call “the tunnel of death” – function almost as
sacraments. Will’s dad moves out for a while, Will and his mother try to
re-make Wenny’s room for the new baby, Will finds a way to celebrate Wenny’s
birthday. His grief comes in almost textbook steps, but Carey’s (Molly’s
Fire, 2000) sweet and pointed language saves it from mawkishness, illuminating
those steps vividly. Like Susan Katz’s Snowdrops for Cousin Ruth (1998),
it allows a heartrending glimpse into what happens in a family when a child
dies. (Fiction. 8-12)
Children’s Bookwatch - Midwest Book Review -
June 2002
Wenny Has Wings is an engaging novel written for
young readers age 8 to 12, and is about a brother and sister who are both
involved in a deadly accident. Little sister Wenny dies, leaving her brother
alone, sad, and angry. Will's pastor tells him that when he's angry he should
write letters to God, but Will decides to write letters to Wenny instead. Wenny
Has Wings is a powerful, emotional, highly recommended story about learning to
cope with grief and loss.
