this was a heart-warming graphic novel that i would recommend to younger audiences that feel excluded or insecure, know that you are not alone. the art was nice as well

When I first started reading this, I wasn't sure that I would love it as much as I did. This poignant and relevant story is one that middle grade students will relate to, even though they shouldn't have to understand the subject matter of the book. Emily Barth Isler does an exquisite job telling a story of survival - from trauma ... from grief... from life.

My daughter read this book. She said it seemed super sad but she found it very interesting. There was a great twist at the end. She would not recommend this book for younger readers.

I downloaded this audio book, but then there were several shootings and I had to put this aside for a long while. I was feeling overwhelmed with the world.

I thought this book handled the subject of death (both expected-terminal illness, and unexpected-the school shooting) with care and sensitivity. This is appropriate and recommended for both tween and adult readers.

AfterMath is a heartwarming story of friendship & family bonding through grief. It tells the story of a young girl who has recently lost her brother due to a heart condition and her family uproots her from the city she grew up in to a new school that has suffered from a tragic school shooting.

Lucy has to learn not only how to deal with the grief/guilt of losing her younger brother, but she also feels like she can't share this grief with her new classmates due to their grief over the loss of their fellow students. She also doesn't want her younger brother's death to be her entire identity.

Lucy learns how to cultivate friendships, crushes, and newfound hobbies throughout this book and I felt it was a great portrayal of all the emotions through out the story.

I really loved Lucy's hobby of miming that came to fruition and how she was able to express her feelings through creative sources, as I feel the arts are often looked down upon.

Overall, this was a

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC Audiobook!!

This was such a great middle grade book for covering a whole lot of heavy topics. There is a lot to unpack here, but that’s what I think would make it such a good book to do with a class. I feel that it lends itself to guided reading and discussion and I’m looking forward to seeing how this book gets utilized in classrooms. I will certainly be recommending it to my students.

This was cute. My kid loved it! We read it together before bed. He liked the characters and the graphics.

I enjoyed this book. I had a few apprehensions, but the topic was handled very well. The main character, Lucy, moves to a new town where a school shooting occurred a few years prior. Lucy and her family are grieving the loss of her brother and she struggles, comparing her grief to her classmates'.

The author does an excellent job of narrating her own book.

TW: Cancer, Death, School Shooting.

This book spoke to the math teacher in my heart.

Lucy moves to a new town after the death of their younger brother, but she wasn't prepared to be put into a grade of students who are all survivors of a school shooting.

She struggles to find friends. She grapples with experiencing loss and grief, making new friends, and finding a new normal with her mom and dad in this new place.

I really enjoyed this story, and I think it would be good for a kid who feels like an outsider or who has experienced grief and is grappling with that.

Full review to be posted soonish. I'll update review with links to socials.
I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the start of this book, however a technical glitch prevented me from being able to finish it.

Schools have changed. School shootings are no longer rare occurrences but too common. AfterMath places death in the forefront and how it can occur in many different variances. Death from school shootings to illness, Isler brings dealing with death to the forefront. AfterMath is a realistic look at how children and parents deal or don't deal with death. Lucy is a great protagonist to lead readers through this heavy topic. Her lack of social understanding for emotional cues when it comes to death will allow a broad range of children to understand the nuances of grieving on many levels. We often have the strongest bond when death occurs but often that is where the story stops, not thinking to extend the conversation to a year or 10 down the road. AfterMath is that book that will help to start a conversation about death by intersecting it with Math and change.

It's been a while-but I did enjoy this book. It was tough reading, since right at the same time, a school shooting happened locally.

This book holds such a beautiful message on grief, trauma, and mental health. It is one that I would get my students to read if I was an English teacher, I think. Exploring all of the complex themes through the eyes and thoughts of Lucy, a twelve-year-old girl, and the setting of the aftermath of a school shooting brilliantly showcases the importance of dealing with trauma through professional help and parental guidance from a young age. I’m so glad that our society is reaching a point where expressing and taking care of one’s mental health is becoming less and less stigmatized and shamed, but I still think it’s important to keep the conversation surrounding these topics going. This book is a great way to instigate a discussion surrounding trauma and mental health. I know this story will stick with me for a long time.

I also thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book being narrated by none other than its own author. I believe it is fitting for such an impactful narrative to have its creator telling it, an opinion that was only amplified when I listened to the author’s notes.

I listened to the audio version of AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler. The story follows twelve year old Lucy and her family as they adjust to life in a town and school that was shattered by a recent mass shooting. In addition, Lucy’s family is in the midst of coping with their own tragedy--the recent death of Lucy’s younger brother. AfterMath shows the myriad ways people cope with grief in a way that is never heavy handed. Emily Barth Isler skillfully blends sensitive moments with moments of levity, so that by the end of the novel, we feel that even in the darkest hours, there is still room in life for friends, love, and laughter.

The audio version of AfterMath was read by Emily Barth Isler herself, and I felt that this further deepened my appreciation of the emotional weight of the narrative. Lucy’s voice was perfect, and I felt as though I was listening to a 12 year old girl confide her deepest, darkest secrets. Brava!

Aftermath turned out to be a heartwarming middle grade book. It follows Lucy, who starts at a new school after her brother dies due to a heart condition. Years before her starting at this new school, there was a school shooting, and her classmates are still dealing with the trauma. Lucy struggles to make friends, but clings to her love of math, and joins an after school mime class. Throughout the story, she learns more about grief, friendship, and love.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of math within the story. I was a math nerd at Lucy's age, and I appreciated the math jokes her father leaves for her.

The author drew inspiration from other school shootings in America, and she tackles this incredibly difficult subject in a way that is age appropriate for the middle grade reading level. She incorporates grief and trauma in ways that the target audience can understand.

The author narrates the audiobook, and I can tell that great care and love went into not just the creation of the book, but in the narration as well.

A phenomenal story for a generation defined by surviving tragedy. Emily Barth Isler highlights how grief can mean different things for different people for different situations. This is a very important topic for middle grade readers who've never known life beyond school shooter drills, probable war, and an always shifting financial world.

Readers meet Lucy, a 12-year-old girl who is forced to move after the loss of her younger brother. And she ends up in a school that is still traumatized by a school shooting that took a lot of her classmates friends. Navigating personal and private is hard. It's not easy to step into a world that's defined by something you can never fully understand. The author does a fantastic job of showing how Lucy grieves.

How math is her safe space...but what happens when new terminology upends all expectations. Bonding is essential in feeling part of a community and to be seen. Lucy does a great job of highlighting the fear, doubt, and more.

School shootings are a part of American student life now. I was reminded of Newtown since the kids in the book were in 3rd grade when one man destroyed so many families. I was in high school when Columbine happened and that was across the country. Yet the book didn't feel exploitative. Raw and honest with a voice that fit Lucy's age and experiences.

Honestly, I recommend this book to anyone trying to communicate with children facing PTSD, grief, and the unknown words on how to find peace with the new normal. Absolutely blew me away. A well-earned 5 Stars for me.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the early copy of this book. As a teacher, this was a very difficult book to listen to, but also one I think is important that we have today which is unfortunate. This book takes place in a town where there was a school shooting 4 years prior. When a Lucy and her family move to town, people are shocked as no one has moved to town since the shooting. What they don't know is Lucy's family is going through a tragedy of their own. Lucy also becomes friends with an unlikely person who is also dealing with the aftermath of the shooting in a very personal way.
Not a spoiler but the title, "AfterMath" also has a connection to the main character's love of math and math jokes. I won't spoil that either!
I think this book would be good for students who are older and students who have experienced shootings in their school, which I hope no one has to use this book for that reason.

I enjoyed reading this book, especially from the perspective of the book’s narrator. Lucy is a brave young girl who’s own experiences shape how she perceives others. She is thoughtful and kind. This book provides an interesting perspective on school shootings, and the emotional journey necessary to move forward.

An important story of hope after immense grief and shocking tragedy.

This book had so many strengths, dealing with such a shocking subject as a school shooting, and childhood trauma and bereavement in an age-appropriate and relatable way. Subjects often relegated to 'grown-up news' stories, when, especially in the case of school shootings, it is the children who feel the impact, the loss, and may have the least support, communication skills, or experience to even begin to come to terms with such a thing.

The writing was excellent, the main character extremely relatable, and I loved the Maths jokes, and the way she figured out her world as equations and formulae, working her way through human relationships and complex emotions through mathematics, that was great as you don't often read about female characters with an aptitude and straight-up love for maths and logic, though we do exist!

The reason I gave this 3 stars, and not a higher rating, is simply because, understandably, there isn't much joy in the book. Yes, there's hope at the end, and yes, it feels true to life, and it is important that nothing romanticizes or trivializes gun crime, mass murder, or childhood illness and mortality, but it was difficult to read/listen to, the tone is sombre, thoughtful, respectful, but overall it is so sad. So, while I rated it high for writing, character development, and sympathy, I could not, from my experience of it, give it a high score for enjoyment or plot, and would not know who to recommend it to.

It is a strange one to rate really, and I may well have to reconsider my rating, or rating system for books like these. I think it is a valuable story to have in the world for many reasons, and I hope it will help young trauma sufferers to see themselves represented in such a way, and would be an excellent teaching book, but not sure how many Middle Grade readers in general, would pick this up by choice over other books.

A note on format: I listened to the audiobook, read by the author: Emily Barth Isler, and I thought her reading was fantastic, she clearly loved and knew her characters and their emotions very well.

Thank you to Lerner Digital for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.