Xavier isn’t your average ten-year-old Tasmanian boy.
He likes wearing brightly coloured clothes. His best friend—well, his only proper friend—is a girl. His mother is a hippie. His parents are on a break for reasons he doesn’t understand. They say it’s not forever. It’s just for the meantime. And his constant companion is a big black dog. But it’s not a pet. It’s the (in)visible symbol of depression—invisible to everyone but Xavier.
Xavier’s best friend is Aster (of Aster’s Good, Right Things, the 2021 CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers). I haven’t read Aster’s Good, Right Things, but didn’t feel I missed anything.
Based on reading Xavier’s story, I can see why Aster’s story won the award. It addresses some hard questions (depression, chronic illness, and other mental health challenges) at an age-appropriate level and without talking down to the children. That’s a positive feature of the story: none of the adults talk down to the children.
Xavier isn’t the only person with problems.
His mother has Chron’s Disease. Aster has her own challenges, not least her new foster sister. Yet, despite being a book about depression in children—something that could easily be a depressing topic—the writing style and voice lift the writing into something that’s both easy to read, yet profound.
It’s also not a story with easy answers, which impressed me. There was an early clue that this wasn’t going to be a book with an easy answer, where Xavier was magically cured:
I think that’s an unfortunate but important fact to acknowledge. Depression isn’t like a broken leg. It can be treated and controlled (and if someone has depression, they absolutely should get treatment). But not being cured isn’t a failing. It’s not an excuse. And the depressed child isn’t broken.
Yes, I like stories with happy endings and a story where the problem isn’t fixed isn’t necessarily happy. Despite that, Xavier in the Meantime is still an uplifting story that I hope will encourage people with depression and educate their family, friends, and the people they come into contact with.
Recommended for confident middle-grade readers, their families, and people who work with that age group.
Thanks to Riveted Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
Hi Iola, This sounds likely a timely book for young people to read, with all the uncertainties in our present world. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 😊