Get a Grip by Alyson Shelton
The death of a sibling and the emotional fallout for the remaining kid(s) is something that’s not often explored in grief literature. Yet, it is very particular, the loss of the person you grow up next to, standing apart from other types of grief. In Get a Grip, Alyson Shelton confronts a younger sister’s emotional devastation as she navigates her home, gymnastics, and school life after the sudden death of her brother.
Kelly is the youngest of three siblings, a skilled gymnastics competitor who is in love with the sport. Her brothers, Michael and Todd, are on a camping trip together when Michael is overcome by altitude sickness. He tells Todd he’ll meet him back at the car, but never arrives. Eventually, the sheriff calls the family to report that Michael’s body was found.
Michael was Kelly’s star, the brother who read with her, expressed interest in her hobbies (especially gymnastics), and valued her opinions. Todd is his foil, the teasing and often mean older brother from whom Michael is a respite. Without Michael, Kelly feels adrift, cut loose from the person who grounded her.
At the Service
People say too many things.
He was only your half brother.
At least you have another brother.
Be strong for your parents.
God doesn’t give you any more
Than you can handle
I wish they would say:
I’m sorry this happened to you.
This is the worst thing.
Every arena in Kelly’s world shifts. At home, they don’t talk about Michael, afraid to allow the grief to bubble to the surface. In gymnastics, other girls treat her as an untouchable, an embodiment of bad luck that might rub off on them. At school, friends become impatient with Kelly’s grief, wondering why she can’t get over it and move on.
Kelly becomes the child who feels she has to be strong for her parents, a common emotional response, but also a burden that a child simply cannot carry. As her life rapidly shifts, she finds a new friendship and the end of some old ones as well as unexpected connectedness through grieving experiences.
I’m starting to realize
that we will never turn back
Into the people we were
Instead we need to figure out
How to live as the people
we are now.
This compact novel (186 pages) is narrated in free verse. It has wide appeal, but is an especially good purchase for librarians seeking work on sibling death and grief, competitive gymnastics, changes in friendships that take place as kids get older, and hi/lo literature for tweens and teens.
Full disclosure: although I’ve never met Alyson in person, I know her from an anthology on sibling loss she coedited —The Loss of a Lifetime. She asked me to contribute an essay about the death of my brother John. That anthology is for adults, but many of the stories are about the death of a young sibling. If you have high school students who have also suffered this particular tragedy, it would be a good resource in letting them know that they are not alone and might be a nice addition for older students. Get a Grip by Alyson Shelton
