Wendell, Mindy Nichols. Light and Air. Holiday House, 2024.  978-0-823-45443-3. 188 p. $18.99. Grades 4-6.

In her debut novel, Wendell introduces us to Hallelujah Grace Newton, an only child who lives with her parents in New York in 1935.    Halle is a fifth grader who enjoys being with her friends when she is not helping her mother with chores. Even though her father is a high school history teacher, they struggle to make ends meet, which may explain why her father is becoming so distant and short-tempered  with his daughter. Family circumstances suddenly change when Halle’s mother is diagnosed with a severe case of tuberculosis. She is taken to the J.N. Adams Sanitarium located in upper New York state. Since there is no pharmaceutical treatment, doctors prescribe heliotherapy- fresh air and sunlight. Halle and her father also test positive, but have no sign of active disease. This does not deter some students from avoiding her and calling her names. Halle’s father is even more aloof and seems not to realize how much his daughter missing her mother. She decides to skip school and walk the long distance to the sanitarium, but becomes sick and is injured along the way. She develops a fever and cough and the doctor, concerned that she has active tuberculosis, recommends that Halle be admitted to the sanitorium. There she is diagnosed with pneumonia, not TB. After her release from isolation, Halle goes to a ward with other TB patients close to her age. After one of her new friends suffers a fatal lung hemorrhage, Halle is fearful she may also lose her mother, who is not responding to treatment.  The girl is determined to do all she can to help her mother get better and reunite her family, no matter how many rules need to be broken. There are many plot threads woven together in this short but engaging novel. More information about the hospital and the disease can be found in the author’s note. The author lives near the ruins of the J.N. Adams Sanitarium, which inspired her to write this story.

THOUGHTS: Readers may be surprised to learn how the lives of so many people, both young and old, were affected by tuberculosis at a time when there was no cure. With its bright attractive cover, this work of historical fiction deserves a place on the shelf of every middle grade library.

Historical Fiction