Liesl and Po (Lauren Oliver)

“Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.”

~Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Sometimes books find you. This was one of those books. I've had it sitting on my desk for quite a while. One of my dear teacher  friends gave it to me. She always has good book recommendations. I have looked at this one for a while and wished I could get to it. Not long before she gave it to me I had read Breadcrumbs and this book has a similar fairy tale feel to it. Finally the time came where I could choose what to read next, and this one was at the top of my list. The timing couldn't be more perfect. This book made me feel, perhaps, ineffably content. It has some wonderful explanations about life, love, justice and mercy.

p. 12 Ineffible was her favorite word. When Liesl was very small, her father had often liked to sit and read to her: real grown-up books, with real grown-up words. Whenever they encountered a word she did not know, he would explain to her what it meant. Her father was very smart; a scientist, an inventor, and a university professor.
Liesl very clearly remembered on time at the willow tree, when he turned to her and said, "Being here with you makes me ineffably happy, Lee-Lee." And she had asked what ineffable meant, and he had told her.
She liked the word ineffable because it meant a feeling so big or vast that it could not be expressed in words.
And yet, because it could not be expressed in words, people had invented a word to express it, and that made Liesl feel hopeful, somehow.

I seem to have a lot of death in my life lately. My dear Aunt Marvelle passed away recently. This past weekend I found out that Bob Turley died (he was a great in Primerica), and this weekend Ralph Klein died. I got to know Ralph Klein's daughter in law at  Highwood when she served on the school council with me. I see her often as she works out at the pool where our kids have swim practice and it's always nice to touch base with her. Then, just this past weekend, a woman who was like a mother to me, Lauretta Boisselle, passed away. She is my dear friend, Carma's, mother. She was recently put in a hospice and died quicker than I expected she would. She was a great woman: generous to a fault, fun, accepting, and fiercely loyal. We will all miss her terribly.

Lauren Oliver, the author of Liesl and Po, said she wrote this book in two months of intense writing after the sudden death of her best friend. She put together wonderful descriptions of life, death and the thin veil between the two. I am a bit of a fast reader. Sometimes I skim rather than reading the words carefully. I found with this book I wanted to slow down and drink up the wonderful descriptions, making sure I didn't miss any of the descriptive detail.

Liesl in Liesl and Po is a girl who is locked in the attic by her step mother. Her father has died and her step mother loves living on the riches that were left to Liesl. Po is a ghost who comes and helps her escape. Po also has a pet with it (you can never tell if Po is a girl or a boy), named Bundle. Bundle doesn't bark though. He always says, "Mwark". Since mwark rhymes with bark, perhaps I assumed Bundle is a dog. Bundle does have a lot of cat-like traits though, so I'm not sure!

p. 109 Liesl let out another snorting laugh and covered her mouth to stifle the sound. "I wanted your help crossing the street," she said, "I keep forgetting you aren't real."
"I'm real," Po said, bristling. "I'm as real as you are."
"Don't be mad," Liesl pleaded, and as Po floated off, she put one foot in front of he other without even noticing it. Step, step, step. "You know what I mean."
"I just don't have a body. Neither does wind or lightning, but they're real."
"It's only an expression, Po." Liesl had crosses the street. "Sheesh."
"Light doesn't have a body," Po continued, and up ahead, Bundle yipped and skipped and turned full circles in the air. "Music doesn't have a body, but that's real..."
"For someone with no body, you're very touchy, you know."


They're able to communicate without talking.

Although Liesl was so terrified she thought she might faint, she got the sense that Bundle and Po had just had a conversation without words, and in the midst of her terror she thought very clear, How strange. How strange and nice. To be able to always say what you mean without having to say anything.

The author makes a number of suggestions about what happens after someone dies, and the strong connections between life and the after life.

p. 75 Bundle and Po skimmed over the top of a glowing moonlit hill and came to a place where black water ran  between soft, pillowed, cloudy hills: a quiet, secluded place, and one both ghosts knew well, and came to often.
There was another ghost sitting by the river, however, and Po stopped short. Bundle let out a small yelp of surprise. This was Bundle and Po's secret spot, exactly one third of the way between the endless waterfall and star 6,789. Po had never seen another ghost there, not one single time.
The new ghost had its back to Bundle and Po, and it was muttering something. It must have only recently crossed over, as even from the back its silhouette was very defined, and very clearly that of a man.
As Po drifted closer, it heard the same saying, "If I could only get back to that willow tree. I'm sure then I could find my way home. Fifteen feet from the tree is the pond, and up the short little hill is the house, where little Lee-Lee will be waiting with her mother...."
Po was stunned. All of the atoms of its being flipped simultaneously in a funny direction, so the ghost shivered from the inside out. Po had not been kidding when it told Liesl that the chances of seeing her father again were next to impossible: And yet, here her father was. In Bundle and Po's secret place, no less.

There are a long list of characters, who initially, do not seem connected at all. In the end it all comes together. The story is grey and full of sadness. In the beginning of the book Liesl says that the sun had not count out in 1,728 days. It was never sunny. Finally, the spell keeping the entire world grey is broken and everyone gets what they deserve in in the end.

The illustrator for this book deserves some praise as well. I was really drawn in by the illustrations. They're black and white, perhaps to match the sad mood of the book. There's so much expression in all the character's faces. I wanted to sit and look at the drawings, rather than skim past them.

I've read some great blog posts on this book. You might enjoy them too. Check them out here, here and here.

The books says it is for 8-12 year olds. I wonder how 8 year olds would enjoy it. I think I'd like to give it a try with my students to see if it's something they enjoy. It might  be something to read around Halloween...ghosts, spells, magic and more fits that time of year. It has a different feel to it though. I liked it!