Rubber Houses is a roller coaster of emotions as author Ellen Yeomans poetically unveils the pain and suffering in grieving the loss of a loved one. A tight-knit family, whose closeness is unified in numbers and a love for baseball, is depicted early in this story. The unity and comfort in the family is easily identifiable, but when the youngest member Buddy (a fourth grader) is diagnosed with cancer and quickly deteriorates the family begins to crumble. For his 17 year-old sister, Kit, witnessing her brother’s fight with cancer and death is beyond heart wrenching. Kit’s desire to live and optimism for a better day is shadowed by her guilt and fear of living without her brother. Her parents are consumed by the death: living through the motions, checked out, and blank. They have become absentee parents to Kit. In this raw account of what an unexpected and unaccepted death does to a family, readers will experience the stages of grief with Kit and her parents. Masterfully constructed, Yeomans writes this novel in free verse and divides the book into a year-long break down of baseball (Warm-ups, Regular Season, Post Season, Hot Stove and Spring Training). This metaphor to grieving, in its honest portrayal, will leave readers hoping for healing for everyone involved. Rubber Houses is a great book to have in any YA collection.

Age Appropriate: 15 years and older
This book could be a good read for a student grieving the death of someone and is struggling to go through the grieving process. With that said, due to the content, this book might be inappropriate for someone who has just lost a loved one. ( )

Kit had her whole summer planned, a carefree one with work, and weekend trips with her best friend Callie. She couldn't wait for spring and then summer. Then her nine-year-old, baseball loving brother Buddy was diagnosed with cancer. She and her mother and Buddy drive the turnpike but to Children's Hospital in Boston where he stays till he dies. Her senior year is one of grieving, cutting off her friends and grief counseling. Her process of recovery starts in a hardware store. Told in verse that sparingly describe this journey, Rubber Houses is a tear jerker, but I loved reading it. ( )

Although it’s not easy to tell by looking at the cover art, Rubber Houses is a book about baseball, loss, and recovery. (Rubber Houses refers to the shape of baseball’s home plate, and the “O” in the title cover art is actually a home plate)

Sophomore, Kit, has a special relationship with her younger brother Buddy, predicated on their mutual love of baseball. In touching free verse poems, Kit reveals the story of Buddy’s struggle and losing battle with the “game” of cancer. The poems are grouped together in baseball themed chapters – Warmups, Preseason, Regular Season, etc. Far from being maudlin, it is an uplifting story as she recounts her love for Buddy, her descent into depression and her eventual recovery.

Two of my children are of similar age and temperament and share the same love for each other and baseball, so I found the book particularly affecting. This book may not have wide appeal, but it’s well-written, and ultimately, life-affirming. ( )

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

RUBBER HOUSES is a moving free-verse novel about Kit's experiences loving her younger brother, losing him to cancer, and moving on but never forgetting.

Kit and Buddy, despite their age gap, are very close, and Kit is devastated when he becomes sick and she finally, but not unexpectedly, loses her younger brother. She shuts down for awhile after Buddy's death, but slowly, she starts to pick up the pieces of her life and continue to live it, even without Buddy by her side, even with the pain of loss that, even when it's not fresh, is never gone.

This is an emotional, well-written novel about love, loss, and moving on despite it all. Kit is a realistic, well-developed character, but often she is the only one; the other characters seem less than real much of the time. Despite this, RUBBER HOUSES is worth reading. Whether readers can relate to Kit's situation or not, all will feel her pain at losing her brother in this painfully honest story. ( )