Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze (review)

Milo is an introspective geek with strong opinions and serious unresolved grief issues—he is mourning the loss of his mother, who died of brain cancer, and his father, who has become depressed and lost in the aftermath. He has a teenaged sister as well, but they hardly interact, and she gets very little of his attention. Instead, he focuses on his move to yet another new school, where he has developed a close friendship with a fellow geek named Marshall, and then, after an initial misunderstanding about her intentions, with a girl named Hillary. He, Marshall, and Hillary start to hang out, and it is to Hillary that Milo first talks about his mother. His elderly neighbor Sylvia also aids his grief work, as she explains the importance of keeping happy memories alive. Milo's emotional states are realistically portrayed throughout: while his sadness simmers at a slow and steady burn, manifesting most often as irritation with things that aren't the same as when his mom was alive, his grief surfaces without warning, triggered by random events and objects that suddenly remind him of her. He shuts down, says mean things to his friends, and practices the avoidance tactics he's learned from his dad, but his friends, with the endearing nonchalance of tweens who don't quite know how to help a friend who's hurting, are adept at waiting out the mood swing and moving on. The story's mood ably mirrors the emotions of a seventh-grade boy suffering the loss of the most important relationship in his life, offering an age-appropriate model for direct emotionality. Offsetting the emotional drama is the droll humor, augmented by line illustrations that present Milo and his friends and family as cartoonish nerds in various humiliating situations; the result is a book that effectively balances the pathos of working through a serious grief with the comedy of working through the absurdity of middle school.