What Jamie Saw

by Carolyn Coman

Book Overview

"What Jamie Saw" is a moving, visceral dramatization of violence in the home, told not from the point of view of a victim, but as witnessed by a nine-year-old boy. Drawing on his mother's desperate... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590786394
• ISBN13: 9781590786390
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Front Street
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.9" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Every word of this story is perfectly written.

Carolyn Coman is my favorite author. I cannot find weaknesses in her work. Do read this book and all her other works. She is attuned to her readers.

Metaphor and What Jamie Saw

Did Van really throw the baby across the room with Patty catching her, or is that simply a metaphor for how Patty realized she had to save Nin and Jamie and herself from the abuse? Whether miracle or metaphor, What Jamie Saw is a stark, disturbing account of one family's struggle with poverty and abuse. Why was Jamie so interested in magic? What did he hope to make appear and disappear? His desperation in remembering how to make the bunny out of the napkin is really the frustration and disempowerment he feels as an 8 year old trying to be the man of his family when he is surely too young and immature to be up to the task. The powerful climax of the novel, when Jamie hides Nin and chooses to speak to Van, shows this child's ability to confront his own demons. Then when Patty returns and tells Van to leave, we understand that the real process of healing their wounds has begun. Children who are victims of abuse do not always know they are being abused. Reading this novel, while disturbing, is critical information for children in dysfunctional families. Certainly a novel to read and discuss with children.

A well-written book on a difficult subject

Carolyn Coman has written an excellent book on a subject many people are rightly aghast at. Still children by the age of nine have seen and heard much, and most will be able to make sense of this book and its language. Like One Hundred Dresses this Newberry Honor Book will demand a degree of maturity from its young reader, and I have met many children who have the intellectual capacity to understand this book.

What Jamie Saw

Jamie was a little boy that saw his step-dad throw his little sister because she was crying. After this happened Jamies life was never the same because he dreamed about the accident in his sleep or even when he would be sitting around. Jamie and his mother and little sister moved that night when the accident happened. THey moved to a place in New Hampsire to live with one of his mothers friends. His family gets a little trailer on an old logging road, his family is very poor and she depends on her friend Earl to help them make it.

Jamesean book for young and adult readers

Those complaining about a lack of action miss the boat--and it doesn't matter whether they're sixth graders or sixty year olds. The book is not driven by event, but by perception, and, just like "What Maisie Knew," whose title it echoes, the point is to show us how Jamie thinks and feels about a situation beyond his control and in some senses beyond his ability to make sense. No, it's not full of Harry Potter-ish magic (which I do like) or graphic violence, it asks its readers, in language young readers CAN understand, to value spending some time inside someone else's mind and emotions.