Mimi

Mimi

by John Newman

Mimi lost her mother in a bicycle accident five months ago, and her family is having a hard time dealing with the death. Mimi’s father is very depressed and sits around the house looking old and tired. Her sister Sally is wearing black clothes, hanging out with other goth friends, and has a terrible secret that she won’t tell anyone. Her brother Connor plays the drums all the time he is home. Mimi feels terribly lonely in her grief, and so she reads her sister’s diary and watches television to feel better. Mimi calls her house the sad house, and she enjoys going to the other houses of her family members after school each day. She also enjoys the little treats that she gets at the other houses, because her father always burns the pizzas that he cooks every night. Mimi also doesn’t have a bed time, and she doesn’t do her homework unless her Aunt B. makes her. Then Mimi reads in the diary that Sally knows she is reading it. Mimi really wanted to know Sally’s secret, but she decides to stop reading the diary. Mimi is not sure of what to do with her family, but she does know that she wants things to get better. Then one day, the teachers tell their father what has been going on at school, the dentist tells their grandparents that they have not been brushing regularly, and Mrs. Lemon at the store tells their father what Sally’s secret is. Sally decides to run away. Will the family be able to find Sally? What did she do that she thinks was terrible enough to run away? Will everything work out okay for this grieving family?

This book covers a very hard topic that will be very hard for some readers. It is something that no one ever wants to face, but this family has to face it and come through it together. The main theme of the book is coping, which the family does not do very well in the beginning. However, little by little, they start working to bring things closer to the way it was before their loss. This book is about a family in England, so the slang may be a little confusing.