Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: Diety’s name used on a few occasions, a handful of common swearwords. Kip takes the liberty of changing his sister’s name into nicknames that offend her.

Violence: Stories of the accidental death of a woman caught in a storm on a boat and hit in the head by an anchor. Her husband also suffered severe eye damage while trying to rescue her. A friend’s father gets physical when he is drunk and beats on Kip’s friend.

Sexual Content: Kip has a crush on the new girl in school.

Adult Themes: Kip and his family live in a funeral home and are used to death and everything that goes with it, including embalming and restoration equipment. A friend’s mother abandons her family to read fortunes in another state.

Twelve-year-old Kip Campbell is the funeral director’s son. He wants nothing more than to leave his small town and get out of the family business. The Campbells have been in the funeral business for generations, and being the funeral director’s son isn’t exactly beneficial to one’s social life. Kip’s responsibilities are to take care of the outside work: sweeping, weeding, mowing the lawn and handling traffic during calling hours. Kip has one more thing, a special gift. If someone who has died is having a hard time leaving this world behind, they ask Kip for help so they can move on. Kip is done helping the dead, but when he is promised his weight in gold for helping just one more person, he decides to do it. The gold part could be his ticket out of town, but he gets more than he bargained for when the person he is supposed to help ends up being the scariest man in town. Kips eyes are opened as he discovers that everyone needs to be loved, even the grumpiest of old men.

A story with a different twist. How many of us could imagine growing up in a funeral home? I really appreciated the author’s tender respect for the dead and those they left behind. Kip was an endearing character and left you feeling a little jealous of his position.