How many ways do children learn to adapt and cope within their families of origin? What do they understand of their parents? of themselves? Voigt shows again that she pays attention and is willing to tell a hard and honest tale in a beautiful way. ( )

3.5 stars. ( )

One of those exemplary books that, after closing the last page, makes you just sit and think and feel what you just experienced.

It is a journey through a young boy's life learning to hope and love, getting heartbroken, and healing. It is an up and down journey that I was invested in from page one and with Jeff every second of the way. Voigt has a singular gift for showing Jeff's thought processes, internalizations, and motivations in a raw but completely believable, realistic manner that latches the reader into it so that they grow over the years along with the character. It is that gift that differentiates this book from other similarly themed books.

It is a book about the importance of communication (not just verbal, but knowing the styles of the people you're around, respecting them, interpreting them, and using your words when you aren't sure). The relationship between Jeff and his father is very understated, but there are moments of such momentous impact because of that that show, in the most incredibly meaningful way possible, what they mean to each other.

It is a book about a young boy learning what love and family mean despite not having the best role models for it. It is a book about him going through grief and pain and loss and lack of self-worth (I remind you, the reader is RIGHT THERE WITH HIM every step of the way) to ultimately find a balance and happiness within himself, and what those states even mean in a healthy way.

The writing in this book takes on the perfect tone and focus for Jeff as he grows up, maturing as he does, showing between the lines versus telling so that readers understand the dynamics between the adults in his life even if he's too young to understand them himself. The characters take on so many important roles, like what Jeff learns about family from the Tillermans, and like Jeff's mother being his foil, antagonist, a force that pulls him in and pushes him away, that he has to navigate sometimes at odds with his own desires, all at the same time until that final line of the book when we see how much he's grown and she hasn't.

This book is on par with Rilla of Ingleside as far as how phenomenal the journey and its deeply satisfying, hopeful, promising end are.

Although it's useful to have read the first two books in the series to fully understand the Tillerman family when they come into play later in the book, it's not necessary so you can definitely start with this book. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. ( )

I read this a long time ago and didn't like it is a pre-teen. I think I might have to read it again to see what I think since it has such high ratings.

This is another of those books that I come back to as a "comfort food" every few years.

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“A Solitary Blue” is a companion novel to “Dicey’s Song,” Cynthia Voigt’s most well known work. It follows the childhood and coming of age of Jeff Greene, a young boy abandoned by his mother and left to live with his father, an emotionally distant professor.

Jeff is a somber, responsible young boy, and growing up without a mother, becomes only more so as he reaches adolescence and rarely interacts with his father. One day, his mother, Melody, contacts them and asks Jeff to come visit her for the summer. Over the course of the summer, Jeff falls in love with his mother, hoping and wishing that she will ask him to stay with her permanently, but at the end of the season, he is sent back home to his father. Over the next few years, Jeff begins to realize how Melody has manipulated them, and slowly begins to communicate and develop a relationship with his father.

As with many older books, the plot is somewhat slow but rich — Voigt captures Jeff’s introspective manner and thinking, and beautifully describes the places where he lives and passes through. Towards the end of the book, the events overlap with those of “Dicey’s Song,” so readers are introduced to Dicey and Mina from Jeff’s perspective. This book has a similar feel to some of Madeleline L’Engle’s works, though the settings and issues addressed are different. ( )