Book Review: The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly

This book is about a boy who loses his mother during World War ll in London. He uses the books on his shelves for company – the books his mother taught him to love. He uses his imagination as a way to deal with his mother’s death and soon finds that fantasy and reality start to merge together. As he tries to cope with his dad re-marrying, he is propelled into a world that is populated by versions of the heroes and monsters from popular fairy tales that he’s read.

This book was an excellent read. I couldn’t put it down. John Connelly is a great writer. I enjoyed recognizing the fairy tales that were familiar to me. It was very interesting to see how the fairy tales reveal themselves in the characters in the book. For instance, there is a woodsman in the tale. There are creatures that are half wolf and half man. They are the Big Bad Wolf character from the fairy tales.



One of the things that fascinates me in this tale is that the books in the story start to whisper to the boy. He sees a psychiatrist because of the problems he having dealing with his mother’s death. While sitting in the doctor’s office, he hears the books on the shelves start to whisper to him. When the doctor says something smart, they cheer for him and when he says something dumb, they call him names. David can hear all of this, but no one else can.

At the end of the book, there is an interview with John Connelly and he’s asked if this is a children’s book. He replies that it’s a book about childhood and growing up, but probably not a book for children to read. My youngest is almost 12. I think that I’d be comfortable reading it out loud to him. He would probably be ok with it. There are some grown up themes and a few things that are a little disturbing, though, so a child younger than 12 might have a problem understanding the book.
This book is described as a series of fragmented stories inside of a story. “Everything you can imagine is real”. You can other reviews and buy the book on Barnesandnoble.com. The book starts at around $20 for the large paperback – brand new. I’m sure you could find it used on Amazon.com.