Gone from These Woods
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
I didn't want to go hunting with Uncle Clay that morning. Now I have to live with what happened for the rest of my life. It was just an accident. The rabbit ran away. Clay fell.
Nothing has been the same for Daniel since that morning in the woods when Uncle Clay went down. Mom tries to hold the family together. Mrs. Hardy, Daniel’s guidance counselor, tries to help Daniel after he loses his role model and best friend. Daniel’s alcoholic father just makes the situation worse. The memory of that cold morning will stay with Daniel forever. But somehow, he must find a way to go on . . . for Uncle Clay . . . and most of all, for himself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Daniel Sartain is a keenly sensitive and mature 11-year-old living in rural Georgia. His youthful and fun-loving Uncle Clay decides Daniel is old enough to learn to hunt rabbits, as well as shake off his vegetarian tendencies. On their hunting trip, though, Daniel accidentally shoots Clay and is traumatized ("I tried to wipe my brain clean. Like my brain was a computer that had nothing but errors"). Daniel is beset with guilt over his role in his uncle's death, and his drunken father's violent behavior doesn't help. As a result of the emotional turmoil, and despite the efforts of his guidance counselor, Daniel contemplates running away, as well as suicide. In this slow-paced but wrenching story about the grueling process of grief and the pain produced from a life ended too early, the dynamics of the Sartain family are well-developed and genuine as a result of Daniel's authentic first-person narration. Statistics about children and gun violence are included in an appendix. Seagraves's debut should leave readers weighing death, guilt and forgiveness. Ages 9 12.
