Raising Readers: Jacob Have I Loved

Parents who encourage and successfully develop children who read see greater school success and satisfaction. This series reviews various examples of children’s literature and provides insights for parents to discuss with their children. Reading and sharing the wonderful stories available to children sends a message that reading is important, creates positive “shared experiences” for families, and helps parents exert a subtle influence on their children’s development.

This very thoughtful story is set in the Chesapeake Bay area during the war years of the 1940’s.  Sarah Louise, who tells the story in the first-person, is the older of fraternal twins and seems to have spent her entire life living in the shadow of her twin sister, Caroline.  She goes by Louise, (but was given the hated nickname of “Wheeze” by Caroline), and is constantly angry with her “perfect and pretty” sister, angry and exasperated with her mother, and hates her grandmother. 

The grandmother, herself, is very bitter and in the early stages of dementia. She constantly nags and cruelly lashes out at Louise and her mother. Louise believes that due to a close call and subsequent illness at birth, Caroline has always been treated with special delicacies and always seems to get what she wants. The sibling rivalry is constant as Louise thinks that Caroline is more popular and everyone’s favorite. 

As the story unfolds, Louise begins to work on the water with her father who fishes and crabs the Chesapeake for a living. She loves the island and the hard work, but begins to believe that she has to leave her island home if she is to escape the surroundings she hates. 

By the end of the story, Louise has discovered special talents of her own that she never developed. She strikes out independently, mirroring her mother before her.  The circle is completed when, at the birth of another set of fraternal twins, Louise makes similar decisions in a crisis that may have been similar to her and Caroline’s own births. 

It is then that Louise (and the reader, since the story is told in the first person) begins to realize that, all along, she’s been the person who has had the wrong outlook. The reader also understands the implication that, had she continued along the path of her early years, Louise would have become just like her grandmother—angry and bitter at the world.

Beautifully told, this is a story that could become a favorite that it is read and re-read many times over the years with deepening insights as the reader matures. The psychology of sibling rivalry and the awkwardness of finding one’s own path are universal. Depending on reading level, this book is for 12 year olds and up.

Raising Readers is written by Steve Arnold of Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services.  He can be reached at 610.831.5101 or ChesMontClubZ@gmail.com. Find out more about Club Z! In-Home Tutoring at www.clubztutoring.com/ChesMont.