Oh wow did I love this. So charming and touching and magical. I would recommend this to anyone who liked The Van Gogh Cafe by Cynthia Rylant (a book I love.) I selected this from the new book display at the library-it has a pretty cover. One of those books that I started and was kind of confused about a time period or even what was happening. Was it a parable? A realistic fiction social issue story? As usual with that sort of confusion I decided to just enjoy it paragraph by paragraph and see what happened.
Davy David is an orphan who can sweep beautiful pictures of angels. He’s in a poor hardscrabble town and ends up with a dog and on the lam with an elderly woman who has three days to get to her destination with death. Along the way they have adventures, become friends, and notice that the old woman is unaging.
This was a beautiful story, and a thoughtful one.
*I just noticed on Goodreads that this is described as being “part Harold and Maude.” I think that’s a reference that the intended young audience will not get at all, but it makes perfect sense to me seeing it now–I love the movie Harold and Maude and indeed there are many similarities and themes of love, friendship, a life lived, and death.
The Last Book I Read 