Leaving mothers

TheseChristmas holidays I read two quite sad books about mothers leaving home. The first one was Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Browns. It is a verse novel about Rachel's feelings when her mother left home and she was left alone with her laconic father. It is a beautiful and moving story. I found a web page with videos made by children presenting this book, Have a look!
The second one is Life on the refrigerator door by Alice Kuipers. This story is told by the notes between a daughter and her mother left on the fridge door. The girl in this book is a bit older , around 14, and the mother is an extremely busy doctor who has breast cancer... To be honest I didn't like this one as much as the other , but it is becoming very popular and difficult to find on the library shelves. Read it and judge yourself...