Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Where The Sky Lives, by Margaret Dilloway, is a middle-grade book that follows Tuesday Beals, a twelve-year-old girl who lives in Zion National Park where her mother works as an archaeologist. She is coping with the death of her Uncle Ezra, her mother’s brother, who had been an astronomer and had basically been like a father to her. After finding out that developers have purchased Hedges, a privately-owned land preserve next to the park, and that their construction there will not only destroy the pristine land currently kept in Hedges but also deteriorate the quality of the park, she decides to take action by trying to find something that will force them to stop construction.
I really like Tuesday. She’s very smart and down-to-earth, though she can be blunt and doesn’t always understand people. I liked how determined she always was. I also appreciated her journey with coping with her grief surrounding her uncle, and learning to accept that things won’t always be the same as they’ve been, but that that doesn’t mean that you should accept negative changes that can still be reversed. I will say that she does not have much of a character arc, or much in the way of development; she learns some things about allowing people to grieve at their own pace, but there isn’t much beyond that.
The other characters are all enjoyable, if not terribly fleshed-out. Tuesday’s best friend, Carter, provides a nice foil to her personality-wise during their scenes together. Their dynamic regarding social media was interesting as well, and this is one of the first books I’ve read where it actually seemed like the author was aware of how social media worked when they were writing it. Carter’s much more into social media than Tuesday, but when Tuesday starts learning photography with a camera that the visiting artist at the park gives her, Carter encourages her to start posting her photos online to help spread the message about the park to try and prevent the construction.
Tuesday’s relationship with her mom has been complicated since her uncle’s death, so seeing them learn how to cope with that loss was very interesting as well. While I do think that that aspect of the book, and Tuesday’s coping with her grief in general, could have been more of a focus, I still enjoyed what aspects of it were there. It has some nice discussion of how people deal with loss in their own way and at their own pace, and that there’s nothing that you can do to force somebody else to speed up that process.
I also enjoyed Tuesday’s friendship with Silas, the artist-in-residence at the park. Her journey with learning photography was definitely an interesting aspect of her character, but Silas’ parallel learning to cope with his break up while Tuesday was watching her mother deal with grief as well was definitely an intriguing point as well, and served as the catalyst for some of the discussions about grief and acceptance.
I really appreciated all of the scientific and conservation-based aspects of the book. The national park setting was fun, and I loved all of the archaeological and astronomical references and scenes. Parts of it did feel a little too lecture-y at times, but then I am above the age of the target audience and thus already knew most of the information conveyed, particularly the more basic aspects of conservation and light quality and such. The book also had a lot to say about how anybody can make a difference, and how even small actions can have large impacts, especially in activism-related issues, which I think is a really important ,message for younger readers to hear.
I will say that the plot structure was quite simple; the saving-Hedges plan took up the majority of the story, and then there was the subplot with Tuesday and her mother coping with their grief, and that was about it. The pacing was also a little slow and repetitive at times.
I really enjoyed Where the Sky Lives, and I’m giving it 4 stars. It raised some really important points about coping with loss and about environmental activism, both of which I believe to be important lessons for middle-grade (and older) readers to be exposed to. Tuesday is curious and determined, and is just a very likable character that one can’t help but root for. Despite the very simple plot structure and relative lack of character development, I still liked the book a lot and would recommend it to any middle-grade reader looking for a STEM-based narrative, or just for anybody interested in the national parks or in environmental activism.
Where the Sky Lives will come out on March 8, 2022.
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