Please note that while this is a picture book, it is not appropriate for very young readers. It is the story of a family coping after their daughter passed away in a drowning accident, leaving behind her parents and three siblings. Understandably, there's a dark shadow that covers everything. And then one day, months later, the parents ask their one son if he would like to have his sister's room after having been sharing one with his brother all of these years. You can feel the pain of the parents as they are cleaning the room. One particular picture of the father really pierced my heart. So it's a small snippet of how a family tried to move on after such a horrific tragedy.

It's a very moving story and the pictures in particular really elicit a lot of emotion. I can't help but think that it is based on a true story. It captures some of the confusion and conflict that her older brother must have been feeling. But I felt like something was still missing. It felt like such a small snippet of the story that I wanted more from it. My cousin lost his son at a very young age in a tragic accident, so I know there would be more to the story that could be told. And yet reading it multiple times, I know that it was about how the family found a bit of peace while moving on.

It's not a book that I would just randomly read to kids. I think it would be best for an older child who is dealing with loss in some kind of way, most likely also the death of a sibling. There's a lot to unpack in its simplicity. And this book is going to just barely scratch the surface. There's still a lot of discussion to be had. I gave it 2.5 stars. Beautiful, emotional pictures and a good concept that just fell a little short for me.

Thank you to the publisher for fulfilling my review request via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book depicts loss and grief in realistic ways that children can understand and relate to. The illustrations are simple in a way that adds to the sadness experienced by the family the story centers around. I appreciated that the characters are Hmong as they are a culture sorely under-represented in children's literature.

This is a depressing picture book. And though I can see what the author was trying to do here, I can't really recommend this one.

The book is about a family whose eldest daughter drowned the previous summer. Everybody is quiet and depressed. Finally, the parents decide to let the eldest son (who had been sharing a bedroom with his younger brother) have his sister's room.

That's really all there is, as far as plot goes. The text is wordy and rather dense, and would probably be a challenge as a read-aloud title. I don't know who this book would necessarily appeal to, other than children who might have lost a sibling. But I would definitely not recommend it for that group, either. This quote is a good example of why:

"Several times each day, the mother or the father opened the door to their daughter's room, went in, sat on the floor beside the bed, leaned their head into the sheets and the blanket, sniffed deep, closed their eyes, and sometimes hoped to never wake again."

Kids who've just lost a sibling don't need to also worry about their parents dying!

I'm also a little confused as to why the older brother got the empty bedroom. Would it not have been easier and less emotional for everyone to put the baby sister in there and let the boys continue to share? We're dealing with limited bedrooms, and now we've got a brother and a sister having to share. That's not going to work very well in a few years. Plus, the baby wouldn't necessarily be emotionally distraught at the thought of sleeping in her dead sister's room, as the older boy was.

The illustrations didn't impress me at all. I don't like the watercolour style used here. There's also one very confusing picture of a crying person. Judging by the text, it's probably the brother. But the person has grey hair (in previous pictures of the boy, his hair was dark).

Overall, I can't recommend this. I have read some decent picture books about dealing with loss and grief, but this isn't one of them. I would be afraid of causing further upset to a child by introducing the idea that their parents want to die and leave them behind.

Here is a book about the grieving process, and what changes come to a household, to a family, after the death of a family member. It is a heartbreaking story, but one that would help to open the communication with a child, after terrible loss.

The book begins with a gloomy scene echoing the emotional state of the family. It moves to contrast of the daughter lost sitting in photo upon the mantle, a sunny day at her back. And then it relates her tragic loss by drowning, and the emotional state of the parents afterward who try to still parent the other (naturally more resilient) children. Play contrasts devastation. This book effectively conveys pain, so much pain.

And later the children realize their sister is not returning.

And the bedroom of the lost sister looms large.

This is not a sweet story. It is a story of pain, to discuss pain and loss. It is a needed story, one we never hope to need. But when we need it (and in this age of a pandemic, at the time of this writing, sadly many do need) this book is done well. It is a vital resource for young eyes and hearts to begin to voice their pain and loss, and to understand why the family dynamic feels so different, where the parent or parents heart and head is and why they cannot parent so well at this time.

The illustration perfectly conveys mood. It is not illustration to make one feel good, or to brighten a tough situation. It is illustration to show the pain, how bleak grief feels. Illustrator Xee Reiter does a fine job doing what most would not want to do in a children's book, illustrate the storm of emotional upheaval after death.

This is a hard subject to present to young eyes and hearts. It is gloomy and painful. Sunshine will never quite be the same. Kao Kalia Yang and Xee Reiter have done it right.

Thank you to NetGalley and to University of Minnesota Press for an advanced reader copy for review.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This book is about a family's loss of a child and their life afterwards. The book is based on a true event. The little girl in the story died by drowning and the parents are finding the loss extremely hard, understandably. The only part of this book I didn't like was the part that showed the parents going into the deceased little girls room to be close to her belongings/bed and wish to never wake up. I thought this was abit of a scary thing for a child to read and start thinking about.
Grief is a deep and personal thing, and apart from that one area I thought the book was good.

This gentle tender book is heartbreaking but also comforting to the reader. It tells the story of the loss of a little girl and how it affected the entire family.

The story is about a Hmong American family who deals with their grief, unending sadness and painful restoration after the drowning of their little girl in the local swimming lake. She walked into the water, headed in deeper and deeper never to return.

Heartbroken the family tries to come to terms with their loss. The little girl's room remains empty, her clothes still their drawers, and everything untouched just as she has left it. A quietness enters the house... a hush like winter settles in their home. All family members try to come to terms, both in their minds and hearts, about the unspeakable tragedy.

"The Shared Room" will pull at your heart strings as you observe a family coping with deep sadness and emptiness attempting to move forward and put the fractured pieces of their lives slowly back together. It is a powerful book of hope. I highly recommend it.

I always enjoy reading children's literature because it's here you really find current topics - much better than you do in fiction for adults. Children's authors work so hard to make hard things applicable to children and to make things easier to understand.

This story is about loss, and how to work through sorrow after loosing a close family member. and trying to find oneself back from the loss. It's a short picture book but it's full of feeling. Having been in a similar position myself I feel with the family and the illustrations by Xee Reiter also convey a lot of emotions.

I will post the review on June 8th on my Goodreads-account.