Brad's Universe

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Summary: Brad's Universe
Review: Brad's universe resides "here in the country, under the wide prairie sky with a good pair of binoculars and a head stuffed full of facts, [where]time [stands] still."

Memory is an intricate gift, one that can warm the heart on a cold day, and chill the bones during a heatweave. For fourteen year old Bradley Greaves, "knowing facts was fun, inventing things was great, but it wasn't enough. Piecing together [his]history, [his]life took longer."

Una Mae Greaves and her son Bradley have just settled in a small house in Camden, Alberta. It is September and as Bradley begins the school year, his father, who has been away somewhere for a long while returns home. Where his father has been is not discussed, and as time passes, Brad feels less a part of the family life he has shared with his mother. While searching in the back of his closet, Brad finds something that triggers his memory and leads him to discover the hidden truths about his father's illness, and why he feels the need to isolate himself from everyone he cares about.

Author Mary Woodbury writes an honest accounting of a young person who longs for acceptance within a community where he wants to belong, and fears rejection on the basis his family's imperfect past.

There are elements of this novel that will surprise readers.