The Painting
by Charis Cotter (Author)
Booktalk: Annie and her mother don’t see eye to eye. When Annie finds a painting of a lonely lighthouse in their home, she is immediately drawn to it–and her mother wishes it would stay banished in the attic. To her, art has no interest, but Annie loves drawing and painting.
When Annie’s mother slips into a coma following a car accident, strange things begin to happen to Annie. She finds herself falling into the painting and meeting Claire, a girl her own age living at the lighthouse. Claire’s mother Maisie is the artist behind the painting, and like Annie, Claire’s relationship with her mother is fraught. Annie thinks she can help them find their way back to each other, and in so doing, help mend her relationship with her own mother.
But who IS Claire? Why can Annie travel through the painting? And can Annie help her mother wake up from her coma?
Snippet: “Maybe it was the wind,” said Claire.
“Maybe,” said Maisie. “Now where we we?”
“I was saying that I don’t think Annie would want you to show those pictures. Have you ever thought about that? It’s like the whole world will know what happened to her and think of her as that poor girl in those weird pictures.
“I’m trying to show what she was like, Claire; it’s a tribute to her. It’s not taking anything away from her memory.”
“Do you think she’d want the world to know that she ran across the street after some stupid dog and that’s why she died? That’s what those pictures say. Annie wouldn’t like it.”
“Claire, this is ridiculous, Annie is dead. Nothing we do now is going to hurt her.”
“But it hurts me! Can’t you see that?”
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