What Jamie Saw
Written by Carolyn Coman
Narrated by Bronson Pinchot
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
"When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, then they moved."
Nin's okay-Jamie knows that because his mom was there to catch her. And then Jamie and his mom and Nin moved into Earl's little trailer that loos like a silver toaster up in the hills in the middle of nowhere. Jamie imagines they are the only survivors of some catastrophe, them and Earl, who brings them food and makes sure they're okay. But then there's the county fair and Jamie wants to go. And there's the school and Mrs. Desrochers, Jamie's teacher, who keeps trying to get close. There isn't enough money for Christmas presents and the car doesn't always start and Jamie's mom is worried lots of the time. Jamie just practices his magic tricks and takes things as they come…until one day Van shows up.
"This chillingly rhythmic opening scene left me breathless and hooked…[this] story could have been bleak…instead, it comes laced with spiritual and literal magic."-The New York Times Book Review
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Reviews for What Jamie Saw
56 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Newbery Honor book didn't feel like a book for children or young adults. It felt like masterfully written short story for adults. The protagonist is a child, but I think the audience is adult.As the book opens, Jamie, a third grade boy who lives with his baby sister, his mother, and her boyfriend, looks up to see the boyfriend throwing his baby sister across the room. His mother catches the baby, and she is fine, but she packs up her two children and leaves that very moment.The rest of book covers the few weeks after they leave, as his mother, struggling both financially and emotionally, tries to figure out how to make things work.A simple, beautiful, and emotion filled little book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Told through the boy’s point of view and heart, this story of loss and survival rings true for folks who came up in difficult childhoods.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A young boy, his mom, and his baby sister flee from the abusive Van, after Jamie (the boy) sees Van throw his baby sister across the room. They move into a tiny trailer out in the middle of nowhere and both Jamie and his mother struggle to sort out their emotions and fears, while Jamie's mother also struggles to make ends meet.A powerful subject and a fair-to-middling treatment. Still, possibly a good introduction to breaching the subject with young minds.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jamie sees his baby sister thrown across the room, and from then on, he and his family are living in fear. Jamie, his mother, and baby Nin head off to start again on their own. For the most part, the family is just living on hope, but Jamie is confused. He wants life to be normal and simple, but he knows that his mother is truly afraid of her ex coming back. It's a beautifully written story of fear and standing up for yourself. Although it's not written in 1st person, it's almost as if the writing is based off of Jamie's thinking process. It's a great chapter book for advanced third graders or 4th-5th grade. Hopefully students will take away an important lesson that people of any age are capable of showing courage in big ways.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Minus two swear words this is amazing book for all ages about healing. The worst part is no matter how often they redo the cover its always sort of lame. Jaime, little sister Nin and their mom live in a tiny trailer while it seems like life has determined they will be miserable. Watching the characters start to take control again was very empowering.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This 1996 Newbery Honor book was also a finalist for the National Book Award. It packs a punch in a mere 126 pages and it addresses a social issue that is compelling and necessary to discuss, ie the impact that adult decisions have upon their small children. Jamie's mother chose to subject her children in an unsafe situation. In the end, Jamie's mother also chose a path toward better decisions.Short of fuse and long of violence, the boyfriend of Jamie's mother symbolizes the terror that children feel when life spins out of control.Jamie saw Van violently lift and attempt to throw his infant sister Nin against a wall. Nin was crying and it inconvenienced Van. Luckily Jamie's mother caught the baby before she hit the wall.As they find rescue in the home of another of his mother's friends, and then move on to a trailer deep in the woods, Jamie's fears and terrors surface. In hibernation, Jamie's family are sitting ducks for Van to return and harm again.When a teacher reaches out and helps pave the way for safe decisions, it then enables Jamie and his mother to stand up to Van.While this is a heavy book, laden with difficult subjects of abuse, fear, helplessness, it is also a book of hope when Jamie and his mother accept loving resources available.Highly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This books packs a punch beginning with the first sentence of chapter one: "When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved." This sentence sets up the dual problems Jamie confronts--his fear for his own and his family's safety and his worry about where his family will live. Essentially, Jamie needs security. Additionally, this first sentence establishes the young voice of Jamie. Many of the sentences, despite the third person voice used, are in this kind of round-about, rambling style--reminiscent of a young child who can't get his words right.Coman mirrors her opening with the first sentence of the last chapter of the book: "Van showed up on Christmas Eve when Jamie was alone in the trailer with Nin." The tension is extreme at this point. Then within ten pages the climax is reached, the conflict resolved and Jamie is on the road to recovery. A spare and satisfying ending.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"What Jamie Saw" by Carolyn Coman is a story about a boy, Jamie, who wakes up and witnesses his six month old by sister's father throwing her from her crib. Jamie's mother catches the baby and immediately decides to remove her children from the situation only leaving with their basic survival needs, such as a few clothes, pillows, blankets, a few toys, and baby things. Jamie and his family go stay with a male friend, Earl, that Jamie is convinced is his birth father, but this notion is never confirmed. The mother feels that her family needs to be on there own, but against Earl's wishes, he sets then up in a small, metal trailer in the middle of no where. Through out the novel, Jamie and his mother find themselves in many situations where they are scared of running into Van, the man who tried to hurt the baby. There comes a time when Jamie and his mother seclude themselves in their small trailer and Jamie's teacher comes to check on them after Jamie hasn't attended school for more than a week. The teacher plays a pivotal role in helping Jamie's mother realize she can't be scared to live her life, and she also lends a helping hand and keeps Jamie a couple days a week after school so Jamie's mom can work. Through out the family's struggle with domestic violence, the family also lives an impoverished life and Jamie spends a Christmas without receiving presents, but this doesn't break Jamie, it only makes him stronger. This particular book was heart-breaking. My ten year old son and I read this book. While the language wasn't violent and didn't go into any detail about the domestic violence, the reader can assume what is going on and can't help but feel so bad for Jamie and his family. At first my son was very upset with Jamie's situation, and at one point cried during a scene in the book in which Jamie's mother took him to a Christmas carnival, Jamie's mom makes him leave while he is having the time of his life because she thinks she sees Van. He felt so sorry for Jamie. We have a four month old baby girl,so the thought of his father throwing the baby out of the crib was unimaginable to him. He turns to Lily, who is sucking her pacifier listening to us read and says, "Lily, daddy would never throw you, he loves you, he is a good daddy." At that point, I thought I had made a mistake by reading the story of Jamie to him and mentioned that he didn't have to listen to me read the story, but he really wanted to know what was going to happen to Jamie, so I read him the complete story. In the end, Jamie and his mother's impoverished state didn't change and they were still scared of Van, but I had to explain to my son that they had each other, they had love to help the become survivors. I don't really think he completely understood the concept, but I think he realizes there are people in this world who truly unfortunate and some of those unfortunate children could be sitting beside him in his classroom everyday. This book launched a very important conversation between my son and I. In a class room setting, I think this book could be used to enlighten children that there are children in their classroom and school that have no choice in their living situation. Furthermore, this book could speak to those that are involved in domestic violence and do not have anyone to talk to. Again, one of the characters in the book that helped Jamie and his mother was Jamie's teacher. Although Jamie's teacher really stepped in, some teachers wouldn't, but a good teacher would listen, so this book could send the message that if one doesn't have someone to talk to they could always turn to their teacher.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book was a difficult read, not because of the reading level, but because of the content. A young boy watches his mother's boyfriend abuse his little sister, and the threesome escapes him, despite their poverty, for safety.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Having fled to a family friend's hillside trailer after his mother's boyfriend tried to throw his baby sister against a wall, nine-year-old Jamie finds himself living an existence full of uncertainty and fear.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Jamie saw was his mom's boyfriend throwing his baby sister across the room. Luckily, Jamie's mom was quick enough to catch her and the three of them left that night. This gem of a book tells what happened after the incident and how Jamie and his mom begin to conquer their fears and put their lives back together. I was hooked from the beginning. Great for middle grade and older readers who like issues books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In memorizing simplicity Coman unpacks a child’s terrified reaction to living with an abusive, possibly mentally ill (or at least unstable) adult, his Mother’s boyfriend, Van. As Patty tells Mrs. Desrouchers, who visits them to find out why Jamie has not been in school. Jamie’s real Father is “long gone,” which indicates more fully what a prolonged and deep-seeded psychological scarring has taken place. Simple and real, Coman deftly portrays the behavioral side-effects of abuse. Hope—the love that gives you strength even when you are more than scared yourself, and friendship flash within the story like the blades on Jamie’s skates, or the tin-foil tinsel on their outside tree.If You Liked This, Try: Yolonda’s Genius by Carol Fenner, Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis, The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White.Awards: Newbery Honor