Getting Near to Baby
| Author | Audrey Couloumbis |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Ian Schoenherr |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Realistic fiction |
| Publisher | G.P.Putnams Sons Penguin Young Readers Corp |
|
Publication date
|
September 13, 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 221 pgs (first edition) |
| ISBN | 9780399233890 |
Getting Near to Baby is a 1999 children's novel by Audrey Couloumbis. It was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2000 and is an ALA Notable Children's Book.[1] The book's target age range is for readers between the ages of 10 to 14. Getting Near to Baby, was influenced through the authors personal experience as a child, as her aunt experienced the death of her child, because of cystic fibrosis. At the same time a family living nearby had died of bacterial illness, by drinking tainted water.[2]
Contents
Plot summary
In the novel, the characters Willa Jo and Little Sister are dealing with their grief after the death of their baby sister after she was given contaminated water. Their mother is unable to handle her own feelings of sadness while caring for the two girls, and sends them to stay with her sister, Patty. Aunt Patty has no children, and her household is full of rules. Aside from moving into a home with their aunt things become even more difficult for the girls, because the aunt does not understand them entirely.
When Willa Jo and Little Sister climb up on Aunt Patty's roof to watch the sun rise, then decide not to come down for a while, Patty realizes that she has not been fulfilling the girls' emotional needs. Willa Jo reflects on her memory during her time at her Aunt Patty's house, like meeting Liz, the Piggly-Wiggly pickle, and much more.
Characters
- Baby: Baby is the youngest child of Noreen. She had drank contaminated water at a carnival, was sick through the night and died in her mother's arms the next morning.
- Noreen: Is the mother of Willa Jo, Baby, and Little Sister. After the passing of her youngest daughter baby, the grief almost seems unbearable. Noreen paints pictures that depict the Baby entering heaven.
- Willa Jo: Willa Jo is the thirteen year old in Getting Near to Baby, who ends up living with her Aunt Patty, after the passing of her baby sister. In the story Willa Jo is announced in her full name by Aunt Patty, which is Willa Jo Dean.
- Little Sister: Little Sister is a seven year old whom also goes to live with Aunt Patty after the passing of her baby sister. As a result of Baby, she has ceased to speak.
- Aunt Patty: In Getting Near to Baby, Aunt Patty is Noreen's sister. Patty throughout the story comes off as very controlling, having several rules in her household. According to Willa Jo Aunt Patty is described as a short and wide woman.
- Uncle Hob: Joins Willa Jo and Little Sister on the roof after bringing them food and water, after refusing to get down from the roof.
Reviews on the book
''Couloumbis' first novel wears its heart on one sleeve and its humor on the other. Together, they make a splendid fit." - Booklist, boxed review
"Willa Jo tells the tale in a nonlinear, back- and - forth fashion that not only prepares readers emotionally for her heartrending account of Baby's death, but also artfully illuminates each character's depths and foibles....The author creates a cast founded on likable, real- seeming people who grow and change in response to tragedy." - Kirkus Reviews, pointer review
I know this is a kids' book, and kudos to Couloumbis for both tackling a hard subject and making the characters awfully well-defined people for the number of pages she spent developing them. However, some of the niggly things annoyed me. For example, why does "Little Sister" suddenly get a name 3/4 of the way through the book? The best book on child death for the elementary school reader I've read all year. We'll leave it at that. - A REVIEWER FROM GOODREADS
Theatrical adaptation
A theatrical version of Getting Near to Baby was written by Y. York and premiered by People's Light and Theatre Company (Malvern, Pennsylvania) in 2008. The play has subsequently been produced at ChildsPlay (Tempe, Arizona) and Seattle Children's Theatre, and Riverwalk Theater.
Play Reviews
April 4, 2008 Review: Getting Near To Baby: A Heartwarming Story at People’s Light and Theater
The play takes place in a town in the south in the 1920s. The story focuses on two girls who live alone with their mother. Their life has recently been turned upside down after the death of their baby sister. Their mother, who paints pictures for greeting cards, has resorted to just painting wild pictures and pictures of baby. Their lifestyle has become unsanitary so the two girls Willa Jo and Little Sister go to live with their Uncle Hob and Aunt Patty.
Aunt Patty is a very strict person and likes things to go her way. She sets out lots of rules for the girls and instantly there is conflict. After the death of baby, Little Sister won’t talk anymore and this really ticks off Aunt Patty. Uncle Hob also is constantly trying to make the girls happy while preserving some sanity in his wife. Throughout all this Willa Jo is also trying to make Little Sister talk and to be a good example for Aunt Patty so that Lucy Wainwright and her daughter Cynthia will approve. In the midst off all of this pressure the two girls find two friends that happen to be Aunt Patty’s neighbors, the Finger’s children, Liz and Isaac.
Well, life goes on in the town and many characters undergo transformations as well as realizations, all leading up to the shocking ending where. . .
This story is one of mourning, happiness, as well as acceptance. It is a fantastic story for any family and I greatly suggest you go and see it.
The cast is phenomenal! Including Nathaniel Brastow who played Isaac Finger, Maggie Fitzgerald who played Little Sister, Clare Inie-Richards who played Willa Jo, Katie Johantgen who played Liz Finger, Susan McKey who was Lucy Wainwright, Christopher Patrick Mullen who was Uncle Hob, Meg Rose who played Cynthia Wainwright, and Mary Elizabeth Scallen who played Aunt Patty, well directed by Abigail Adams.
All of the characters were fantastic but there are four that really deserve special mention. First is Maggie Fitzgerald who is only in sixth grade! She displays a stunning control over her emotions and her facial expressions, combined with her confidence and actions seeming to give the play a more natural feel and make it more “well rounded.”
Christopher Patrick Mullen as Uncle Hob displayed a fantastic stage presence as well as an amazing control over the situation changing the whole mood of the play from happy and easy going, to important and very serious in the blink of an eye.
Finally the two tenth graders, Katie Johantgen and Claire Inie-Richards, both seemed to be far beyond their years in acting and overall stage performance really adding to the experience.
Adaptation by Y York, based on the novel by Audrey Couloumbis. by Pat McGill
Review 2 : ‘Getting Near to Baby’ deals compassionately with a family’s loss
Special to The Seattle Times, by Nancy Worssam, 2009
The Seattle Children’s Theatre production of “Getting Near to Baby” is a touching story about a family’s loss and a crotchety relative’s journey to compassion. Imagine that your baby sister has just died and you are immediately shipped off to an aunt who hasn’t the foggiest idea about how to console, show love to or please a child.
That’s the fate of Willa Jo (played by Sylvie Davidson) and Little Sister (Catherine McCool) in the poignant and heartwarming “Getting Near to Baby.” And director Rita Giomi’s gifted cast gives full measure to former Seattle resident Y York’s fine stage adaptation of Audrey Couloumbis’ Newbery Honor book.
The girls’ snobby Aunt Patty seems not to have a clue. For her, rules and cleanliness are far more important than compassion.
She disdains the polite neighbor children, Liz (Amy Conant) and Isaac (Andrew Haggerty), because, with 14 people living in their house, they must be trash. Yet despite Aunt Patty, these kids manage to befriend the sisters and introduce them to the wonders of their playhouse/cave.
Aunt Patty would prefer the sisters to take charm lessons from the superficial, social-climbing Lucy Wainwright and her mean-spirited daughter Cynthia. Ellen McLain as Mrs. Wainwright is the embodiment of shallowness and priggishness. That she’s a phony is evident to everyone but Aunt Patty.
Of course, there are lessons in this play. True values are those that involve respect for other people, and revere good character rather than airs or social status. And much to the delight of the young people in the audience, the play makes it clear that children sometimes do indeed know more than the adults in their lives — and they have their own way of working through life’s tragedies.
Aunt Patty has a lot to learn about children and about values. In Anne Allgood’s highly competent hands, this unsympathetic woman finally undergoes the character change the audience longs to see. Buried under that exterior there is someone who is capable of love, someone who also mourns the baby; Allgood makes her transformation believable.
But it takes a long time to occur, and, were it not for the understanding Uncle Hob, life would be even harder for the two sisters. You can’t help loving Uncle Hob. Played with just-right down-home warmth by Todd Jefferson Moore, he offers a needed corrective to the social ineptness of his wife.
“Couloumbis deftly constructs an intricate montage of thoughts and memories from the perspective of 12-year-old Willa Jo Dean who, with Little Sister, mourns the death of their baby sister,” said PW in a starred review. Ages 10–14. (Aug.) [3]
