Thank Your For All Things by Sandra Kring

Title: Thank You For All Things 

Author: Sandra Kring 

Series: None

Published: September 2008 

Publisher: Bantam Discovery 

Pages: 448 

ISBN: 9780385341202 

Source: Personal Copy

Description: At twelve, Lucy Marie McGowan already knows she’ll be a psychologist when she grows up. And her quirky and conflicted family provides plenty of opportunity for her to practice her calling. Now Lucy, her “profoundly gifted” twin brother, Milo, her commitment-phobic mother, and her New Age grandmother are leaving Chicago for Timber Falls, Wisconsin, to care for her dying grandfather—a complex and difficult man whose failure as a husband and father still painfully echoes down through the years.  Lucy believes her time in the rural town where the McGowan story began will provide a key piece to the puzzle of her family’s broken past, and perhaps even reveal the truth about her own missing father. But what she discovers is so much more—a lesson about the paradoxes of love and the grace of forgiveness that the adults around her will need help in remembering if their family is ever to find peace and embrace the future.  

I Give This Book 4 Stars! 

Every once in awhile, you need that book that brings you back to reality.  Something that reminds you of the importance of family, friends, and most of all the love that those relationships bring.  For me, this book was it.  I wasn't sure about such a serious topic in the voice of a twelve year old.  But, maybe that's what makes this story work.  Since she is a child, she sees and understand things differently than the adults do.  And I think she is part of the reason that all the horrible things of the past are brought to the surface.  By coming to terms with all of those events, the family is able to start the process of healing.  Something I think the rest of them wondered if it was ever a possibility.  The way the events of the past were laid out was bittersweet and left me in awe that this family was able to survive.  I think I will be searching out more by this author!