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I just finished "Grief Girl", by my fantabulous Aussie friend Erin Vincent. It's a must read and I'm not just saying that because I love the girl. It's a searing, honest, beautifully written account of overwhelming grief after parents were killed by a speeding tow truck while crossing a road - when Erin was all of 14.

It's a brave book, written by a funny, brave and wonderful woman. If you're in the NYC area, Erin is going to be signing books at Barnes and Noble in Greenwich Village (Ave of the Americas at 8th Street) at 7:30 on Wednesday March 21st (that's this Wednesday). I'm going, so hope to see you NYC peeps there!

Another fab book I read was Tamar by Mal Peet, who is becoming one of my new favorite YA authors. It's about two British operatives who parachute into Holland to help the Dutch resistance during the "Hunger Winter" in 1944. Highly recommended.

Oh! And I'm so excited...my daughter was complaining about how she didn't have any good books to read so I went to my bookshelves and pulled out my 1937 original printing copy of "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streitfield. The book originally belonged to my aunts Barbara (Garrison, a children's book writer and illustrator) and Marilyn, (one of the first female photographers at Magnum, with photos on the cover of Newsweek, who then decided to become a Buddhist nun later in life) and read it multiple times as a kid. I read her the first chapter and now she's engrossed in it. Don't you just love when your kids find joy in books you adored as a child?

While the power was out, I read a couple of YA titles that left me thinking Wow! This is really different. Erin Vincent's grief girl is one of them.

grief girl is a memoir that reads like a YA problem novel. The narrator/author is fourteen years old when the unthinkable happens. Her beloved mother dies in a car crash and her father is severely injured. A month later, Erin's father dies from a blood clot to the heart.

Erin is the middle child, and much of her struggle after her parents' death results from her powerlessness. Older sister Tracy turns eighteen just days after their mother dies. She has already left school (grief girl is set in Australia) and begun a training program in cosmetology. Tracy has a steady boyfriend--a solid guy named Chris--and she assumes full responsibility for Erin and their much younger brother, Trent. As is only natural, she tries to shield Erin and Trent from responsibility, but is also angry that everything fell to her.

What I most appreciated about grief girl is its honesty. Vincent asks brutal questions, even if they don't have an answer and, in fact, reflect badly on her. Before her parents' death, Erin imagines the following scene while rehearsing a play with her theater group:

• "I'll be sitting in this same chair a week from today and Mum and Dad will be gone. Tragedy will strike. Life will be ruined, changed forever. But the show must go on. I'll have to struggle on without them. I'll be up onstage rehearsing through the pain and everyone will think I'm noble and brave. Most people, if their parents died, would never be able to perform...but not me. I'm amazing and strong. It will be the best performance of my life. Everyone will say, 'Look at her! Isn't she incredible? A true star.'" (30-31)

Erin is not always likable as she narrates her story. While in school she becomes absorbed in her grief and it defines her. She wears her father's shirt for months on end. She fights with her sister and dreams of success only she can bring to her family. But, she's honest and straightforward, and grief girl resonates long after you've read the last page.