Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart

Not since Charlotte’s Web have I read a book that pays as much homage to the power of friendship. Isabelle is a survivor; you can’t help but cheer for her. Jane St. Anthony creates characters that captivate your heart and stay with you long after you reluctantly come to the end of the book.
—Loretta Ellsworth, author of Unforgettable

In Milwaukee, Isabelle Day had a house. And she had a father. This year, on Halloween, she has half of a house in Minneapolis, a mother at least as sad as she is, and a loss that’s too hard to think—let alone talk—about. It’s the Midwest in the early 1960s, and dads just don’t die . . . like that.

Hovering over Isabelle’s new world are the duplex’s too-attentive landladies, Miss Flora (“a lovely dried flower”) and her sister Miss Dora (“grim as roadkill”), who dwell in a sea of memories and doilies; the gleefully demonic Sister Mary Mercy, who rules a school awash in cigarette smoke; and classmates steady Margaret and edgy Grace, who hold out some hope of friendship. As Isabelle’s first tentative steps carry her through unfamiliar territory—classroom debacles and misadventures at home and beyond, time trapped in a storm-tossed cemetery and investigating an inhospitable hospital—she begins to discover that, when it comes to pain and loss, she might actually be in good company.

In light of the elderly sisters’ lives, Grace and Margaret’s friendship, and her father’s memory, she just might find the heart and humor to save herself. With characteristic sensitivity and wit, Jane St. Anthony reveals how a girl’s life clouded with grief can also hold a world of promise.

Jane St. Anthony is the author of The Summer Sherman Loved Me and Grace Above All. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Contents

1. Unhappy Halloween
2. Don’t Mess with the Spirits
3. Landlady Alert
4. Walking to Bedlam
5. Beneath the Silver Tray
6. Sea of Doilies
7. Breakfast Hostage
8. Saved by Grace
9. Bitter Rain
10. Cemetery Delegation
11. Rescue Mission
12. Hospital Bound
13. Breaking the Rules
14. No Turning Back
15. History of Loss
16. Backbone Engaged
17. A Little Less Sorrow
18. “Clair de Lune”
19. An Unwrappable Gift
20. Speaking the Unspeakable
21. Light Up
22. Snow Angels
Acknowledgments