My grandmother asked me to tell you she’s sorry by Fredrik Backman

I love authors who write clever descriptions and use clever words.  Fredrik Backman does just that in his excessively long titled book, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry.  Actually it was that long title that drew my attention in the book isle at Target and ultimately landed it in my shopping basket.  And when I finished the book I pulled up my previous post and made myself and my six year old grand our own super hero capes.
 

The main character is a seven year old with thought processes adults find it hard to reach.  She is described as different and it is her differences that make you love her to the end.  The story is a journey of fairy tales and discoveries as she delivers letters of apologies to some amazing characters in this book.  There are so many quotable lines I started writing them down on the back cover and tweeting them out through Facebook. 

I felt myself drawn into the stories of life and death and as the back cover describes, one of the most important human rights, the right to be different. I looked forward to finding out how each character fit into this amazing story.  When I closed the last page of the story I couldn’t help but feel a compassionate need to see beyond the skin and shadows of people around me and have made a conscious decision to reach inside and connect.  I can’t wait to start realizing what super hero power each person has.  After all I believe that not only does every seven year old need a super hero but so do I and I’m several decades older than seven.

This Young Adult novel is a fabulous read for everyone.  In an era and country where we are pushing our children to be understanding and tolerant of others differences this book explains the why behind it.  Bullies beware, you may find all of us who are “different” united and standing together for our right to be just that, different.

I rated it 5 stars

• *Young Adult Novel:  Pretty clean reading with a smattering of curse words
• *Would I reccomend it?  Yes, I’d share my copy with my mom or my daughter
• *Believable?  Yes, a believable fiction novel with plenty of humor and quotable lines
• *Susseccsful author? Fredrik Backman has a proven record of success: wrote a New York Times best seller, A Man Called OVE
• *Would I re-read it?  Yes and I truly hope a movie is made – I’ll be first in line to see it.

Washington Square Press
ISBN 978-1-5011-4661-9 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-5011-1508-0 (e-book)

If you’d like to make your own Super Hero Cape, here’s some super easy, super cheap instructions you can follow in less than an hour!