Book Review: "Poor Deer" by Claire Oshetsky

There are times when I feel like many books out there are just slight variations on a theme. And then I stumble upon a book like Poor Deer, which is creative and unusual, and my faith in original ideas is restored.

“Margaret’s mother thinks the girl is looking at the pictures, but what Margaret likes even better than the pictures are the happy endings. After the day of the schoolyard flood, Margaret begins to write happy endings of her own. Her made-up endings help her forget that singular moment in her life when everything went so wrong.”

Margaret is four years old when a tragedy occurs to her best friend, Agnes. While no one explicitly blames Margaret for what happened that day, she is wracked with guilt. Her mother insists to everyone that Margaret never left the house that day, but Margaret knows the truth.

In an effort to try and cope with what has happened, Margaret starts writing her own stories, sometimes using a made-up language. Margaret’s stories always end happily. But somewhere along the line, Poor Deer, a menacing character, starts appearing in her stories, pressuring Margaret to confess the truth about what happened to Agnes.

This book definitely has a fairy tale quality, almost ethereal at times. The lines blur between what is real and what Margaret imagines, but Poor Deer becomes a constant presence.

I know this is definitely not a book for everyone, but it’s a powerful look at what children understand, and how they process grief and loss. This will be a book I think about for a long time.