Loose Threads

by Lorie Ann Grover

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Seventh grader Kay Garber's happy home is made up of four generations of women: Great Gran Eula; Grandma Margie; Kay's mother, Karine; and Kay. But on the evening Grandma Margie tells her family she has a lump in her breast, Kay's world is changed forever. Struggling with issues of popularity in junior high school, trying to understand her too-perfect mother, dealing with her feelings about friends, and coming to terms with Grandma Margie's cancer diagnosis and illness, Kay is awhirl with questions that have no easy answers. But Kay is a survivor, and as she journeys through these difficult months she comes to a new understanding of the complexities and importance of faith and family. Told through forthright and perceptive poems in Kay's own voice, Loose Threads reverberates with emotion and depth and will leave no reader untouched.… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)

Kay is from a happy home but one day her grandma figures out she has breast cancer and she has to learn to deal with all the problems around her and the emotions she feels. All in the form of poetry.

jengro3 | Aug 16, 2017 |

This is a great poetry book that addresses the topic of death. It is easy to relate to the poems if you have lost someone. I think that this would be an appropriate book for private read or at home read but may be too deep for some students. Overall I really enjoyed this book but I feel a little sad after. (

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chelseagarland | Dec 2, 2016 |

It is hard to deal with anything that could mean certain death. Cancer is one of these things, and Kay soon learns her life can be changed in an instant. The poem that stuck to me was the one where she does not want to know, where she does not want to hear or see anything of a answers because in life something as not knowing is like bliss. I think this is a great book to give to anyone who is struggling with something similar, to Kay everything is wrong and she feels like school, her family life is hitting her twice as hard so she deals with what she can handle. Children are resilient and because of this she sticks by her Grandma because she doesn't know what will happen.

josephumana | Mar 16, 2015 |

Wow this story was intense. I liked the poems without form. It was nice to feel the back and forth of the poetry. It was a rough topic to tackle. (

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cshupp | Jun 6, 2010 |

Loose Threads is Lorie Ann Grover's first book. It is a story told in poems about breast cancer and the lives it touches. Each relatively short poem has an underlined heading that keeps the plot moving forward. Some poems are wistful and focus on a truth that the main character, thirteen year-old Kay, comes to understand. Other poems are about the mundane things in life like cockroaches in the kitchen or the pleasure of watching a TV show or eating in the school cafeteria. It is a story that works on several levels: a girl coming of age, a family in crisis, the devastation of breast cancer, and the continuity of life and familial love. It is a quick 300 pages that holds interest primarily due to the believability of the characters. (

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vortega | Apr 29, 2008 |

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Rhode Island Teen Book Award (Nominee – 2005)

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Gran Eula

Karine Garber (Kay's mother)

Kay Garber

Grandma Margie

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Florida, USA

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Seventh grader Kay Garber's happy home is made up of four generations of women: Great Gran Eula; Grandma Margie; Kay's mother, Karine; and Kay. But on the evening Grandma Margie tells her family she has a lump in her breast, Kay's world is changed forever. Struggling with issues of popularity in junior high school, trying to understand her too-perfect mother, dealing with her feelings about friends, and coming to terms with Grandma Margie's cancer diagnosis and illness, Kay is awhirl with questions that have no easy answers. But Kay is a survivor, and as she journeys through these difficult months she comes to a new understanding of the complexities and importance of faith and family. Told through forthright and perceptive poems in Kay's own voice, Loose Threads reverberates with emotion and depth and will leave no reader untouched.

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