Not Nothing
by Gayle Forman
read by Dion Graham
Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 6 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written April 15, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
Wow. This audiobook is powerful. I was hooked from the first sentence in the voice of a 107-year-old Polish man called Josey by his friends.
He was telling about Alex, a twelve-year-old boy who had to spend his summer doing community service at Shady Glen, the senior living facility, because of something he did that was truly terrible. Alex was living with his aunt and uncle, who clearly didn’t want him. And he’s dreading another hearing at the end of the summer that will determine whether he can stay with his aunt and uncle or have to go to juvenile hall.
Alex was not at all happy to work at Shady Glen, thinking the residents were zombies who smelled bad. And a girl named Maya-Jade who was also volunteering bossed him around and made him scrub surfaces with bleach. But then there’s a lockdown when Maya-Jade doesn’t show up, but Alex does. He starts bringing the residents meals in their rooms, and begins seeing them as people. And then Josey, who hasn’t spoken since he came to Shady Glen, begins telling Alex his story.
Josey’s story is a riveting part of this book. He was a young Jewish man in love with a Gentile in Poland when Hitler took over. He tells how he and his parents resisted leaving Poland because they didn’t think it would ever get so bad. (That part was really hard to listen to this particular weekend.)
Obviously, Josey lived to tell about it, but the story of how he survived and how his wife-to-be made sure that happened illuminates for Alex how people can rise to the occasion of our lives and how we are much more than our worst mistake.
It adds up to a powerful story, beautifully told.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/not_nothing.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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