Kindred Souls by Patricia MacLachlin

Reviewed by Lori

Kindred Souls

Title: Kindred Souls

Author: Patricia MacLachlin

Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 70437

Description: Ten-year-old Jake shares a special bond with his grandfather, but when he asks Jake to build him a sod house, Jake is not sure he wants to do it.

Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Loved it!

Why I Read it:  I needed a book to recommend for a good reader in Grade 2



Lori's Notes: Simple and elegant story of Jake and his grandfather Billy.  Billy is 88 and Jake thinks he will live forever.  Billy tells Jake they are "kindred souls."  While they walk around the farm where Billy was born he talks about his old sod house and tells Jake they will build one together.  When Billy gets bronchitis, Jake, his sister Lida, and brother Jesse work together to build Billy a new sod house.  Jake thinks this will make him better so he will stay, but perhaps that's not what Billy really needs.  This book is full of great quotes and ideas that are wonderful for classroom discussion.  The text is simple and in large font and the subject matter is appropriate for students in grade school.  I really liked the focus on doorways in this novel. Doors that are open or closed.  Significant conversations happen in doorways.  Billy closing or leaving the door to the sod house open and what that could signify.  I also loved the dog Lucy.  She comes to Billy and he knows she is there for him.  There is a lot of symbolism in this novel.  But it's simplistic enough to be conscious of the audience.  I loved how the author used the barest number of words to tell the story.  There was nothing extraneous about the writing to me.  I was bawling by the end of the book that is how much I connected to the characters.  I read the whole thing in about an hour.  It would make a great read aloud if you don't mind a few tears.

Recommended Readers: I highly recommend this book for classroom and library use for the middle grades 2-6.  I would also recommend this title as a high school curriculum study text for students in the lowest level English courses, because the subject, symbolism, and story are ideal for classroom discussion and essay or paragraph writing.

Favourite Passages: 

  • Billy is eighty-eight years old, and I don't worry about him dying.  He will live forever.  I know that.  (pg. 2)
  • Because we're kindred souls, you and I, calls Billy. (pg. 29)
  • When you were born, Billy loved you right away.  When I see the two of you together...She takes a breath.  Sometimes I think you were born for him.  (pg. 36)
  • She's an angel dog, says Billy.  And don't you forget that. (pg. 73)
  • Every night I sleep with Lucy.  And I come to understand something.  Lucy likes me.  She knows I like her.  But she knows that I don't need her.  Billy needs her. (pg. 82)
  • The sod house is beautiful.  Lucy lies down on the rug as if she's home.  And she is. (pg. 94)
  • I smile and put the last sod piece in place.  I feel a little shiver when I do it.  Like it is something final and important. (pg. 104)
  • Thank you all, he says.  then he reaches out and shuts the door of the sod house, leaving the rest of us outside...Billy has never closed the door on me before. (pg 105)
  • He cried because it was a gift.  you were the one who gave Billy this gift.  (pg 108)
  • Billy spends days with Lucy in his sod house.  Sometimes he invites me in, too.  But it is Billy's house.  As Jesse tells me, You built it but it is Billy's house.  That's what a gift is. (pg 110)
  • In a way I have made something that separates us.  Billy and Lucy have their own space now.  I didn't mean for that to happen.  (pg 111)
  • I'm happy, he calls.  I'm happy, Jake.  I wave.  He waves back, smiling.  He doesn't close the door of the sod house.  (pg 115)


Themes: Grandfathers and Grandsons, Life on a Prairie, Families, Dogs, Life, Death and Dying,  Doorways, Sod houses, Old Age, kindred spirits.

Cross-Genre Links: 
TV Movie: Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991)
TV Show: Little House on the Prairie
Weblink: Sod Houses
Research: Life in Early Canada and Pioneers
Mapping: Prairies
Music: You're not There performed by Lukas Graham

Inquiries and Activities: 

  • How does Billy know the dog has come for him?  Do you think the dog is an angel? What examples can you give from the book that make you think that?
  • Why does Billy call Jake a Kindred Soul?  What is a kindred soul?
  • What is the significance of the sod house?  What might be its other meaning? (A home made of earth)
  • What is symbolism?  What items in this book have a symbolic meaning?  What are they and what do they mean to you?
  • Do you think Lucy is really an angel?  Why does she go to Billy but not Jake?
  • Talk about the significance of doorways and thresholds in this novel.  What sort of boundaries are being crossed?
  • How are Billy's last words to Jake a blessing?
  • Make a model of Billy's sod house.




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