Only Child

November 27, 2017
Navin’s gripping debut opens with first grader Zach Taylor huddling in a closet with his teacher and classmates while shots and screams echo in his school’s corridors. After the shooting, Zach’s parents’ frantically search for Andy, Zach’s older brother, only to discover that he is one of the victims. Zach’s gradual comprehension of the tragedy includes his bewilderment when people bring food to his house, which he thinks of as an unseemly party. As he works through his memories of Andy, he comes to an aching realization of the depth of his loss. His parents are too preoccupied with their own grief to notice Zach’s anguish or to bring him to therapy. He takes refuge in books, reading hidden in Andy’s bedroom closet, and is the bystander to his mother’s nervous volatility and his father’s adulterous liaison. When his mother resolves to bring a lawsuit against the parents of the boy who wielded the gun, in spite of the fact that the two families have had a longtime friendly relationship, Zach conceives a dangerous “mission” to bring healing to his parents and the community. Those who can handle the difficult subject matter will find the plot to be a page-turner; Navin also excels in brilliantly capturing Zach’s perspective. 125,000-copy announced first printing.

December 1, 2017
The aftermath of a school shooting, told from the point of view of a first-grader who hid with his class in a closet while his 10-year-old brother and 18 others were massacred."The thing I later remembered the most about the day the gunman came was my teacher Miss Russell's breath. It was hot and smelled like coffee....POP POP POP. It sounded a lot like the sounds from the Star Wars game I sometimes play on the Xbox." Like Emma Donoghue's Room, Navin's debut takes the risk of narrating a gruesome modern tragedy in the voice of a very young player. At 6, Zach Taylor comes only slowly to understand what has happened that day at school. He is with his mother at the hospital waiting to see if his brother, Andy, is among the wounded when his father arrives. "Daddy's face was like a grayish color, and his mouth looked all funny, with his lower lip pulled down so I could see his teeth....First Mommy's eyes got really big, and then her whole self started shaking and she started acting crazy. She yelled, 'Jim? Oh my God, no no no no no no no no no!'" Because Andy had oppositional defiant disorder and was routinely unkind to him, Zach wonders at first if perhaps his death will be an improvement. During what he perceives as the "party" that goes on at his house after the massacre, he sequesters himself in his brother's closet and imagines life as an only child. "Like they could both come to my piano recitals and they could both stay for the whole time." Soon he sees just how wrong he is, as every cherished ritual of his life is pitched overboard, his mother changes into someone he doesn't know, and he is tormented by nightmares and uncontrollable rages. Since his parents are preoccupied to the point of cruelty and don't get him professional help, he is on his own in figuring out how to cope. His touching tactics include assigning colors to his feelings and making paintings of them and studying the "secrets of happiness" purveyed in the Magic Treehouse series. Seems like a lot of people, and not just the ones in this novel, need to reread those books.A powerful exercise in empathy and perspective.

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January 1, 2018
Things were bad enough in the Taylor household even before unthinkable tragedy struck. Before Andy Taylor was gunned down at his elementary school, he was afflicted by oppositional defiant disorder, which leads to violent tempers, and Dad had been having an affair with a neighbor. Now that Andy is gone, one of 19 confirmed dead in the attack, his family, including Andy's younger brother, Zach, are understandably having difficulty coping with the aftermath of searing loss. First-grader Zach narrates Navin's heart-wrenching debut, and his innocent voice effectively grounds the story. He watches as his mother launches a mission in pursuit of justice, and as his parents grow increasingly distant from each other. As Zach struggles to make sense of the increasing thunderstorms between Mom and Dad, leaning on the Magic Tree House books and the Hulk to give him some perspective, Navin adds layers of (occasionally cloying) complexity. Navin explores the intersection between violence and mental illness in this important and timely book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2018

DEBUT Navin's first novel guides us through the aftermath of a tragedy through the eyes of a six-year-old child. When Zach Taylor's older brother, Andy, is killed in a school shooting, he is mostly left to fend for himself emotionally while his parents struggle to cope with the loss. Zach's father retreats into his work, while his mother turns to organizing a group of other affected parents to take legal action against the shooter's family. Unable to fully understand what's happening or process his emotions, Zach retreats to a "hideout" in Andy's bedroom closet. As his family continues to deteriorate, he learns to use both his anger and his sympathy to begin the healing process. While the narration approaches preciousness at times, telling the story through Zach's eyes allows it to focus on human emotion and family dynamics without getting bogged down in political posturing. Zach has a refreshing honesty because he's not old enough to have learned to filter his emotions, and, as befits a child, many of his observations are sensory: smells, facial expressions, bodily functions. VERDICT A tough, topical story with a hopeful conclusion for the family, this is a strong book club choice. [See Prepub Alert, 8/28/17.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018

DEBUT Navin's first novel guides us through the aftermath of a tragedy through the eyes of a six-year-old child. When Zach Taylor's older brother, Andy, is killed in a school shooting, he is mostly left to fend for himself emotionally while his parents struggle to cope with the loss. Zach's father retreats into his work, while his mother turns to organizing a group of other affected parents to take legal action against the shooter's family. Unable to fully understand what's happening or process his emotions, Zach retreats to a "hideout" in Andy's bedroom closet. As his family continues to deteriorate, he learns to use both his anger and his sympathy to begin the healing process. While the narration approaches preciousness at times, telling the story through Zach's eyes allows it to focus on human emotion and family dynamics without getting bogged down in political posturing. Zach has a refreshing honesty because he's not old enough to have learned to filter his emotions, and, as befits a child, many of his observations are sensory: smells, facial expressions, bodily functions. VERDICT A tough, topical story with a hopeful conclusion for the family, this is a strong book club choice. [See Prepub Alert, 8/28/17.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2017

German-born, New Rochelle, NY-based Navin offers one of the big debuts of next year, narrated by a six-year-old who has suffered a terrible trauma. Zach huddles in a school closet with his classmates and teacher as a gunman ranges through the school, killing 19 people. Later, he retreats into his own special hideaway and uses his imagination to heal. With a 125,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2018

In this gut-wrenching debut novel, readers meet Zachary Taylor, a first grader, just as his 10-year-old brother is gunned down in a school shooting. The book begins with Zach and his classmates hiding in the classroom closet with their terrified teacher. That experience is riveting, as is the following account of a family, broken by needless violence, desperately trying to cope. Zach's murdered brother, Andy, was a difficult child, who had oppositional defiant disorder and, as a result, anger and behavior issues. His parents grieve, but Zach is initially glad that his mean brother is not around anymore. However, the gentle themes of loyalty, love, and good versus evil found in Zach's favorite books, Mary Pope Osborne's "The Magic Treehouse" series, resonate for Zach and help him to understand that his family had issues because of Andy's behavioral problems, but they all loved Andy regardless. The first-person narration reflects six-year-old Zach's limited perspective of the world. Teens may initially find the somewhat stilted language distracting, but they will soon become absorbed. Zach's voice and his parents' emotions are genuine. On a par with John Green's evocative writing, Navin's tale can be a difficult read. But this work is an important reflection of the culture, with school shootings as commonplace as they are. VERDICT For teens who appreciate intense emotional stories and those who feel compelled to read about this new normal, such as in Marieke Nijkamp's This Is Where It Ends.-Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.