Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell is about a young girl, Halle, and her mother being admitted to the hospital with tuberculosis (TB). In 1935, tuberculosis was spreading rapidly across the nation. People were dying at an alarming rate and the population was afraid. When Halle and her mother both get diagnosed with TB, their community shuns them. To help them recover safely, they were sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital.
The hospital is in a woodsy area in upstate New York. It isn’t easy for people to get to and it’s far away from Halle’s difficult father. Halle is glad to be away from her father who is always upset and hard on her. However, she misses her mother and wants to see her but because of her mother’s unstable condition, they won’t allow Halle to visit her as her mother is in a different section to the hospital. Her mother is really sick and is considered a high risk which is why the hospital secludes her from other patients including Halle. As Halle begins her healing journey, she befriends the other children in the children’s ward. There she bonds with her fellow bedmates and learns how to cope with TB and missing her mother.
I thought the book was a cute and heartwarming read. I liked reading how Halle was trying to bond with her friends but also trying to help her mom get better. The scenes between Halle and her dad were sad and left me feeling heartbroken because it was clear that they loved each other but didn’t know how to express it to each other. I think this was a good book for young readers because it could also tie into our most recent pandemic in a thoughtful way. It illustrates to young readers that in a scary and uncertain time, things can be manageable if we rely on and support each other. I enjoyed the book, and I would be open to reading more books by the author.
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