The Land of Yesterday

I recently read The Land of Yesterday by K.A. Reynolds. Isn’t that a gorgeous cover? It’s an adorable middle grade book that deals with the feelings one experiences when dealing with loss.

When Cecelia’s brother Celadon dies, she’s left feeling guilty. In order to get her brother back, she attempts to travel back to the Land of Yesterday — a place full of magic and dangers. To top it all off, her mother has also left for the Land of Yesterday, plus the house has gone crazy and is imprisoning her father. Will Cecelia be able to fix everything? Or will she also end up trapped in Yesterday?

On the surface, this book seems like a scary adventure full of magic, but there is a deeper meaning to this book. There are several beautiful quotes in here, such as this quote about recovering from grief:

When we’re ready, we can finally move beyond Yesterday and return to living in Today

p. 235

Or how death is permanent:

If someone died in Today, they couldn’t return to the land of the living.

p. 244

The book is full of clever names, like the town they live in: Hungrig (it means hungry in German). The book seems to capture the world through a kid’s eyes and seems to have humor that a kid would enjoy. For example, some characters that haven’t experienced loss speak gibberish in the land of Today.

Although this book isn’t on my list of favorites, I thought it was cute and had a lot of beautiful quotes. My boy (who is 12) also read it. He didn’t gush over it like he does with Lauren Magaziner’s books, but he didn’t have anything negative to say about it. I think some of the clever names went over his head.

I would recommend this story especially to kids that are dealing with the loss of a loved one.