Page 39 - Digital Cornice Grade 9

BOOK REVIEW

Some Kind of Happiness

By: Kritisha Amatya

Title: Some Kind of Happiness
Author: Claire Legrand

When you are a child, the world seems to be a vast place where you are yet to find your role. Many of
us develop a shelter to keep us safe until we are ready to face the truth of responsibility. Finley Hart,
an eleven-year-old girl, does the same. Her heart is amongst the pages of her notebook, in a forest
kingdom she calls “The Everwood.” Her place of solitude soon jumps out of her notebook and calls
out to her from her estranged grandparent’s backyard.

Finley Hart loves crosswords and lists. She loves to write about the Everwood.
Struggling to cope with her mental health, her parent's divorce, and her newly re-acquainted family,
she discovers she must also save her beloved Everwood from the ghosts of a past buried all around
her.

The theme of this book is mental health. It tackles the issues many of us face while growing up and
portrays, in a clean-cut fashion, how much our mental health can affect our lives as a whole during
our early years.
The writing style, choice of words, and characters really touched my heart. This story is about a young

girl who struggles to see the light on so many occasions but always perseveres.
One part of the book I didn't find as appealing as the rest was the rushed ending and the side plot
about Mrs. Hart's disease. While the book progresses nicely up until the mention of the disease, it
races through the plot and arrives at the end far earlier than it should have.
The quote from the book that stays with me is“I suppose most things in a person’s life are good for a
while, even if that doesn’t last very long. Maybe that is why, even after something has gone wrong,
we spend so much time trying to fix it. Because we remember when it wasn’t broken.”

This book is suited for ages above 10. Anybody seeking to see a reflection of themselves or find
something that resonates will especially love this book.