Marilyn and Me by Molly Griffis

When Molly debuted her web page, it described her as an “Oklahoma award winning children’s author.” These days, the page says she writes for “adults and young readers.” Molly is indeed branching out with this new novel aimed at adult readers, but she continues to write about subjects that are deeply personal for her.

For example, her wish to educate and enlighten today’s children about the watershed World War II era in America led to a trilogy of children’s books. Two of them won Oklahoma Book Awards for childrens/young adult literature: The Rachel Resistance and Simon Says. Her love for a friend named Billie Letts led to the publication of You’ve Got Mail, Billie Letts.

Molly has recently experienced the deaths and illnesses of loved ones—a strange affair we must all traverse unless we check out of this life early—and these experiences have inspired Marilyn and Me, a road-trip novel unlike any other road-trip novel you may have come across.

When Lydia Patterson and her best friend Marilyn both lose their husbands in the same week, Lydia is suddenly thrust into the role of only caregiver for Marilyn, who is in stage four of early-onset Alzheimer’s. At the same time, the rattling of chain bookstores forces the closing of the independent Book Nook where Lydia has worked for most of her adult life. Her judgment impaired by grief, Lydia decides to fulfill a promise made long ago to take Marilyn on a road trip. On the first day out, a blind cat who also turns out to be pregnant crawls into Marilyn’s lap and heart causing her to speak for the first time in two years and leaving Lydia with some tough choices.

If you know Molly, you know how important family and friends are to her. You also know she can be nostalgic and sentimental, but that any potential sappiness is more than sufficiently tempered with an enthusiasm for life and discovery. She writes like she lives, with an observant eye that can’t help but focus on the rewards of this spiritual and bodily journey we are on.

Molly knows it’s the journey that’s important. And what you discover along the way.

The front and back inside covers share Kenyan words with their english equivalent. The last pages show pictures of the real Mama O and her animals with their many caregivers.

For a fun  book with Kim Doner as illustrator, check out Molly Griffis’ The Buffalo in the Mall. If you’re looking for another one written by Kim, my favorite is Buffalo Dreams.

Buffalo in the Mall is for ages 4 to 7, and Buffalo Dreams for 7 and up.