Honorable Mention
Letters About Literature 2001
Level II

I'm thirteen years old and I grew up in a very angry house with parents who argued every night. I was less than three years old, and I thought it was a regular lifestyle for everyone. One day when my parents were fighting my mom stated, "I want a divorce." Everything became quiet and my two older sisters started crying. What was divorce to me? What did it mean? I had no idea that that little word meant so much would happen. My dad then grabbed his car keys and left. He didn't even say good-bye. It seemed like everybody was angry at each other. My mom did things she probably wouldn't normally do. One time my aunt came over and brought us down to the basement for what seemed like hours, while my mom "let her emotions out." Two weeks before my third birthday my parents became officially divorced. To make up for what happened near my birthday, my mom gave me the biggest birthday party I've ever had with relatives and even second cousins and friends of hers. It was too bad my dad wasn't there though.

My dad came over when my mom was gone, and he brought your book Dinosaur Divorce. The first thing I noticed about it was the illustrations. He read the book to me and my sisters. For my dad the book was the only way he could explain to a: two, six, and nine year old what was happening. I understood in the middle of the book that I wasn't going to see my dad as much, and I thought it was the books fault. I was angry inside, it seemed to me that sense the book said that I wouldn't see much of my dad; that's what was going to happen.

I didn't want my dad to go, and one of my sisters thought he was going to be gone forever. I knew what divorce meant after my dad was done reading the book, and I didn't see why things couldn't go back to the way they were.

Every morning I'd wake up with my sisters at school, and I'd watch a movie or listen to a reading tape that came with a picture book. Nobody seemed to pay attention to me, and it seemed like nobody cared about me or loved me. At those times, when I thought of things like that, I'd remember that in the book Dinosaur Divorce it mentioned in a way that things were going to be tough, even when certain things were or weren't happening my parents still loved me.

My sisters my not have thought the same way I did. One of my sisters would go to school when my dad could take her, and he'd look at her outside through the window and she'd just sit there and stare off into space. My other sister seemed to isolate or separate her overflow of emotions from what was happening at the time.

I noticed that whenever I went to a dinner party on my mom's side of the family they'd always say all this bad stuff about my dad. I wouldn't know how to cope with it, so I'd sit behind a corner wall and listen to everything said. I'd later process it and get even more sadder. Why were my relatives bad talking about my dad? Didn't they realize how devastating it was to me? I was probably more devastated by that fact that it seemed like nobody cared enough to say the right things to me. The book was the only thing that did seem to say the right things to me, but it never mentioned anything like all the relatives bad talking. I got through all the rough times by thinking exactly what the book said.

My dad soon got an apartment, and me and my sisters visited him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everything was a lot more peaceful, but very different. I was caught up between thinking life at the time was worse, or better.

Thank you so much. Your book impacted me in ways that made me think and relate things to it. I understood what divorce meant. I didn't do anything to make it happen, and it happens to a lot of other people in this world. I know now that I'm not the only one that knows how much power a little word, divorce, can ruin and rebuild better relationships with your parents that you never knew you could have before. I hope that your book reaches as many children who need it, in ways that reached out to me in my time of grief. Divorce isn't all bad, it changed my life for the better.

Sincerely yours,

Holly Stebing

Holly Stebing
8th Grade
Romig Middle School, Anchorage, Alaska
Teacher: Ms Lauri Packebush

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