A Mother's Abandonment and a Life in Art, Natureby Michele Norris
James Prosek's young-adult novel tells the story of a young boy who discovers art and nature after his mother abandons the family.
Learn more about Prosek's artwork.
James Prosek is a master at bringing the outdoors into people's lives through art. He is a celebrated fly-fisherman, a critically acclaimed author and a wildlife artist often described as a modern-day John James Audubon.
How he developed his artistic gift and his love of nature is chronicled in his latest project, a young-adult book called The Day My Mother Left.
Although billed as fiction, Prosek's book is largely autobiographical. It follows the life of 9-year-old Jeremy as his parents go through a bitter divorce. His mother, Phoebe, drowns her depression with alcohol and eventually leaves the family without saying goodbye.
Jeremy copes with the loss by losing himself in the surrounding fields and streams. He finds solace fishing and sketching the wildlife he encounters.
Prosek says he wrote the book as fiction rather than as a memoir because memories from that difficult period of his life were fuzzy. He discusses the book, and how the experience of being abandoned by his mother helped him discover his gifts for art and nature.
1 comment:
I thought you might be interested in another wonderful book for children(this time, for 7-12 year old readers) entitled REMEMBERING MRS. ROSSI by Amy Hest. It's about mothers and fathers and daughters and how an eight year-old girl and her father grope their way forward through the first year without their mother and wife. It's about love and people who know a lot about love. Valerie B. Cordiano, MA, LFMT, and Director of The Cove Center for Grieving Children/Capital West Region, praises the book: “I was enchanted by Amy Hest's Remembering Mrs. Rossi and appreciate the authenticity and honesty of the thoughts and feelings her characters express. The relationships are real and down to earth, and her main characters’ grief reactions are a natural part of the story. There are so few books that incorporate real reactions to a family member’s death for children, which makes this piece of fiction so much the more significant."
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