The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for access to an advance copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga
In The Shape of Thunder, twelve-year-old neighbors and former best friends Cora and Quinn alternate narrating what’s happened in the year since Quinn’s brother Peter shot and killed Cora’s sister Mabel at their school.
Author Jasmine Warga approaches a terrifying and heartbreaking subject with sensitivity and nuance. The book explores the girls’ relationships with family, friends, and teachers, mapping how these have changed since the shooting, Both Cora and Quinn have survivor’s guilt and struggle to accept all that they’ve lost. The book doesn’t solely focus on their grief, though. Warga has given the main characters rich inner lives with all of the complex and confusing emotions that come with being a pre-teen.
The girls are navigating their pain without the comfort of their lifelong friendship. Quinn desperately misses Cora while Cora feels it would be a betrayal of her sister to remain friends. When Quinn reads an article about time travel, she becomes convinced that together she and Cora can stop the shooting and go back to how things were before. Their renewed relationship is fragile as they attempt to change the past, though ultimately the book focuses on how they can change the future.
Warga doesn’t shy away from acknowledging that her novel may be hard to read. The book opens with a letter to readers explaining how books helped her make sense of the world when she was young. The Shape of Thunder explores a difficult topic that adults are reluctant to discuss with kids because of their own discomfort and fear — and does so in a poignant, thoughtful way. Warga also includes themes of race, culture, religion, and belonging, which are often overlooked in these types of stories. This is a worthwhile book for families to read and talk through together.
The Shape of Thunder is available for pre-order and ships on May 11, 2021.
Related articles and resources
School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where via Education Week
How teens want to solve America’s school shooting problem via PBS NewsHour
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