If You Read This

LoveReading4Kids Says

Driven by an irrepressible, endearing 12-year-old who’s lost her Mama, and displaying all the heart and lucid lyricism of her outstanding debut, Kereen Getten’s If You Read This tackles the tough topics of grief and family disconnectedness with a tender wisdom that’s pitch-perfect for 8+ year-olds.  

In addition, the novel’s Jamaican setting is dazzlingly evoked, from landscape, language and food, to the characters in Brie’s community, to highlighting how tourism restricts and impacts the lives of locals.

On her twelfth birthday, three years after her mother’s death, Brie is given a gift from Mama - a box of “letters from my heart” that are peppered with clues that will take Brie on an adventure, much like the ones they used to enjoy together. Mama’s first clue directs Brie to visit a special place with her dad. Namely, Brim’s Island, the magical cliff-top house owned by Brie’s Grandpa Brim, “a man with a wild imagination that left you in awe”.

But the trouble is, Brie’s dad says he’s too busy to take time off work, which leaves her thinking he doesn’t care about her. And how on earth is she supposed to solve Mama’s final clue when the man who holds the (literal) key to unlocking it is shut away in a home for the elderly? Brie will have to be very brave and very bold, but the risk turns out to be more than worth it, with a wonderful father-daughter reconciliation coming in the wake of Brie discovering the precious gift of a secret place that will always connect her to Mama.

Joanne Owen

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