Almost Eden

By Anita Horrocks

It is the hot prairie summer of her twelfth year and Elsie is at a crossroads. Her beloved mother who is mentally ill has been hospitalized, and Elsie thinks that the breakdown is all her fault. Mental illness is simply not discussed in Elsie's close-knit Mennonite community and she is rudderless. Nothing Elsie does seems to go right- there's no pleasing her bossy older sister; she forgets to feed the cat, so her father gives it away; she's supposed to watch out for her younger sister, but she lets her come home alone from the swimming pool (despite the lurking menace of a weird stranger around town); and she bargains with God to make her mother well again - to no evident avail. Elsie's conversations with God, her struggle to overcome guilt, and her honest desire to prove herself are laced with a wicked wit and clarity of vision. Almost Eden is a beautiful portrait of a town, a family, and a young woman willing to challenge the things that don't make sense to her, and to fix the things that don't seem right.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887767427
• ISBN13: 9780887767425
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Tundra Books (NY)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Great Book for grades 8 - Adult

If you know of a family with tween/teens in it, struggling with Mental Illness, hand this book to them! It will be a great starting point for some good discussion. The themes in this book are intense - I question the promotion of grade 5 (age 10!). Don't get me wrong - this is an awesome book - fairly portraying Mennonite faith and how Mental Illness can affect a family. Highly recommended for adults and more mature tween & teen readers.

A young girl's journey of self-discovery

Elsie is twelve, convinced her mother's mental illness is her fault, finds herself at odds with everyone, from family to friends. To top it off, she horrifies her Mennonite family by losing faith in God. Her mother's breakdown will change her life and lead her full circle in Almost Eden, a young girl's journey of self-discovery.

Charming but too-short story

ALMOST EDEN is a delightful novella about a 12-year-old girl coping with her mother's emotional illness and her belief that she herself is the cause of her mother's problems. The girl, Elsie, is a lively and appealing character, and Horrocks creates good surprises with the characters of Elsie's father and sisters, who prove to be far more complex than they initially appear. The only flaw is that the story is too short; a longer book would have allowed even more character development and more room for the characters to grow. Still, this is well worth reading

A normal girl with a ton of adventures

Amost Eden is about this girl named Ellise that lives in a normal life until... her mother has a serious mental illness which is, depression. Her mom is sent away to Eden and the family is torn. Meanwhile Ellise has even more problems such as losing her best friends, running away from cops when breaking in swimmng pool, not feeding the cat Tommy, nearly getting killed by a crazy bull, nearly getting kidnapped, and most of all trying to get her mom out of the hopistal Eden. Since things are not turning her way Ellise starts to lose faith in God. Will her life end in happily ever after or will things just get even worse?