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The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree

Paola Peretti

4.04 · Rating details · 716 ratings · 164 reviews

A novel for all ages about a young girl losing her sight, inspired by the author's own life story. For fans of Wonder, The Little Prince and The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

Mafalda is a nine-year-old girl who knows one thing: some time in the next six months her sight will fail completely. Can Mafalda find a way through a seemingly dark future and still go to ...more

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ebook, 256 pages

Published April 5th 2018 by Bonnier Zaffre (first published 2018)

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Average rating 4.04 ·

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· 716 ratings · 164 reviews

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Jul 13, 2019 Kerri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kerri-s-favourites

I bought this for the absolutely beautiful cover* (the back features a lovely image of a cherry tree, which is just as appealing as the front cover!) and because I liked the way the book felt in my hands. I didn't know what to expect from it, but I knew it was going to be a special book. Which of course, it was.

Mafalda is nine years old. She's wonderful and insightful and loves her cat, Ottimo Turcaret. 🐱 She also has Stargardt Disease, and is rapidly losing her sight. She measures t ...more

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Apr 15, 2018 Alexis rated it liked it

Shelves: readers-first

This is about a little girl who is slowly going blind. It is written from her point of view and tells the story of the months following her diagnosis and how she feels about what is happening to her.

The book is well written and easy to read. I usually enjoy reading a child's point of view, and this was no different. She also writes in a journal, which is a good way to give a insight into what she is thinking and feeling.

The characters were unusual and this added much need ...more

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Mar 09, 2019 Hâf rated it liked it

I'd seen a lot of advertisement for this book so I think my expectations were higher than they should have been, as I'm quite disappointed. I really thought I'd love this heartfelt story but I found it quite plain. It focuses on Mafalda's struggle with coming to terms with her illness, soon she will be blind.
To me Mafalda seemed about 6 or 7 years old, she spoke and acted in a very innocent and naive way, very unlike the ten year old she was supposed to be. And so it three the perspective of th ...more

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Aug 05, 2018 Amy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A beautiful book. A really easy and quick read. The friendship in the book is beautiful and heart warming. Ahh it just gives you so many feels. I can’t even describe them all, haha.

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Nov 06, 2018 Callum McLaughlin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, childrens-and-ya

A simple but charmingly bittersweet story about a young girl coming to terms with the fact that she is losing her sight. It's great to see a novel for young readers that tackles the notion of disability and difference with such honesty and sensitivity; enhanced, no doubt, by the fact that the author has the same condition as her protagonist.

The narrative voice is believably youthful and naive, and the translation from Italian was clearly handled well. Though poignant, it didn’t delve ...more

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Oct 28, 2019 Katerina Kondrenko rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 06-out-of-10, italian-motives, contemp, bromance, no-love-geometry, pages-201-300, character-driven-plot, from-the-1st-p-pov, read-in-russian, standalone

6 out of 10

Touching, but I felt tricked in the end. As if the author wasn't sure Mafalda's story would move readers so she added one more tragic plotline. I cried, yes, but that seemed forced. Maybe it was needed for contrast or to show that MC's problems are not the biggest in the world and everything's possible as long as you alive...

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Aug 23, 2018 Lily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, children-s, contemporary, reviewed, translated, netgalley

This book sounded exactly like my kind of book and I was keen to finally read it. However, the writing style immediately feels very young and like an adult trying to write a child - it didn't feel like an organic voice, despite how it's based on the author's own experiences. I wasn't sure if this was more down to the translation than the actual writing though, but for me personally, it made the book lag, especially towards the middle.

Mafalda is diagnosed with a rare condition that me This book sounded exactly like my kind of book and I was keen to finally read it. However, the writing style immediately feels very young and like an adult trying to write a child - it didn't feel like an organic voice, despite how it's based on the author's own experiences. I wasn't sure if this was more down to the translation than the actual writing though, but for me personally, it made the book lag, especially towards the middle.

Mafalda is diagnosed with a rare condition that means she will slowly lose her sight. She's scared and unsure about her future, and she feels that nobody around her is being truly honest with her, but instead, treating her like a baby. She hates having to be walked to and from school instead of walking independently like the other kids. She hates that her parents want to move away from the home she's always lived in, to a strange and alien house nearer school. She hates that people talk about her rather than to her. She starts creating lists of things she can't do and things she wants to be able to, and measures the progressive loss of her own sight by the number of steps she can take away from the cherry tree on the edge of her school's playground before she can't see it anymore. When she begins to navigate the world focused on everything she will lose or be unable to do, this story became quite negative for me, and didn't really recover its positivity. Mafalda's naivety and emotions drive this story, to the point she convinces herself she can live in the cherry tree.

I did enjoy Mafalda's friendships and relationships, especially with Estella and a boy from her class at school. Both those friendships felt much more real and well-developed and added some much-needed depth to the story. Estella's close relationship with Mafalda would probably get her sacked in a UK school though as crossing some professional boundaries. But Estella's parallel journey with her own health was probably one of the most emotional parts of this story, especially at the end. I wish I had more to say about this book, but I honestly haven't come away from this book really remembering much. The tone and mood were wobbly, the writing had some lovely moments but was mostly unremarkable, and the plot felt both too directed from weak memory as well as forced with magical-realism. It left me not really feeling anything, and I think I'll probably forget this book quite quickly, which is a shame. ...more

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Oct 10, 2018 Aishah Humaira' rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree is about little Mafalda who has been diagnosed with the Stargardt disease and how she struggles to get used to her progressively vision loss. It's hard to swallow that people as young as Mafalda had to go through such a rough journey, and the fact that this story is inspired by the author's own experience made it more genuine and sincere.

Nine years old Mafalda is a sweet girl, but due to her condition, she had no best friend. It breaks my heart to see ...more

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Jul 10, 2018 Kirsty rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, july-2018, read-on-holiday

The narrator of The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree, like the novel's author, suffers from a rare degenerative eye disease called Stargardt Mist, which ultimately causes blindness. I feel that fostering awareness of such things in children's and young adult's literature is important. From the outset, I was both intrigued by the story and pulled into the narrative. Ten-year-old Italian girl Mafalda is quite a naive narrator in some respects, despite what she has to cope with; she feels authent ...more

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Oct 21, 2019 ♡ j u l i n a ♡ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cried-my-ass-off-shelve

I think it’s a very poetic story with wonderful characters. And I cried too much during reading this book.

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Mar 29, 2018 Marjorie rated it it was amazing

Losing your sight is one of those things that terrify me - I would genuinely rather lose a limb than my vision. This book details the emotion behind losing your sight to a relatively rare disease and fleetingly the practicalities of how it feels to be locked in to an encroaching darkness that nibbles away at your sight until it is gone.

Told from the perspective of Mafalda we learn how she works her way through what is happening to her with support from her family and the enigmatic s ...more

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Jun 28, 2019 Laavanya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Beautiful

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Jul 24, 2018 Sammy Jackson rated it it was amazing

A really sweet read

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Aug 23, 2018 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: children

Firstly, thank you Pansing for sending me this review copy.

At first, I was not sure whether I would love this book because I hardly read children books. But as the story went by, I started to like it. The story was told from Mafalda, the main character of the book and she appeared to be a 9 year old child who was going to be blind soon.

I really adored the values from the book and it was heart breaking to see a child at such young age needed to face such fate. However, she was not a weak chacopy. ...more

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Sep 07, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was unlike any middle grade novel I’ve read recently. 10 year old Mafalda is slowly going blind and is dealing with idea of the things she will no longer be able to do or see, so she plans to run away and live in a cherry tree like the character of her favorite book (not Anne of Green Gables like I thought! Haha). Two new friends, a boy and a kindly janitor lady help her process her grief and find the courag ...more

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Aug 12, 2018 Karen Barber rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Thank you NetGalley for introducing me to a book that stirred me and made me think again about what’s important.
Mafalda is nine years old. She measures things in steps and is acutely aware of what is around her and what she likes. Why? Because she has Stargadt disease and the little spots in her eyes that form a mist are getting bigger. The doctor has given her six months until she becomes blind and has to live in the dark.
Mafalda is a big character. She has dreams and fierce hopes; ...more

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Jul 22, 2018 Sabrina rated it really liked it

A beautiful story about a brave young girl who is gradually losing her sight and is afraid of the dark that won't end. Despite her failing sight, she wants to play football, walk on her own and climb her favourite cherry tree. While Mafalda is planning ahead for living in the dark, she makes friends who teach her that she needs to figure out what is most important to her, even when she won't be able to see any more. Mafalda's story is so touching I cried at the end, but that's not to say it is a ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Ruthy lavin rated it it was amazing

Simply beautiful ❤ ...more

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Nov 16, 2019 Barbara rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, health, bullies, compassion, moving, conflict, friendship, disabilities, education, emotions

Ten-year-old Mafalda is steadily losing her eyesight due to Stargardt Disease, but she tries to hold onto what really matters to her. She also hides just how much her vision is deteriorating from her family and friends. Like many youngsters, Mafalda keeps lists--only hers are the things she loves about her life. She loves the cherry tree near her school and measures how much her eyes are changing by measuring how far away she can see the tree. She also loves looking up at the night sky and count Ten-year-old Mafalda is steadily losing her eyesight due to Stargardt Disease, but she tries to hold onto what really matters to her. She also hides just how much her vision is deteriorating from her family and friends. Like many youngsters, Mafalda keeps lists--only hers are the things she loves about her life. She loves the cherry tree near her school and measures how much her eyes are changing by measuring how far away she can see the tree. She also loves looking up at the night sky and counting the stars and playing soccer. But each of these pleasures become increasingly out of reach. As her parents make plans to move to an apartment that will be easier for her to navigate, Mafalda hatches a plan to live in that cherry tree as a character in her favorite book did. She figures she'll gather all the supplies she will need and be just fine. Mafalda has two friends, one, Estella, is a janitor at her school, and the other, Filippo, is a talented musician in her class. Both help her realize that friends can be found in the most unlikely ways and places and give her hope that life will still offer some joy. I was touched by much of this book, but I found the ending rather abrupt and wanted more development. After all, her parents had been planning to move to an apartment that didn't allow pets, and Mafalda loved her cat, Ottimo Turcaret, and I couldn't understand how they would have ever dreamed of moving to a place where he couldn't live and no plans seemed to have been made for him. Then, suddenly, they are moving into a house near the school, and the cat is with them. I'd have liked to have had that part of the story explained. And while I loved the nurturing relationship between Estella and Mafalda, time seemed to move in an odd way once Estella's health issues are revealed. While poignant, the epilogue only added to my confusion about the passage of time. There are parts of this book that are deeply touching, and young readers around Mafalda's age will be moved at her attempts to list things she can do without needing to see and her list of things that matter to her. Even in the darkest of times, it is possible to find hope and consider the possibilities that lie ahead in one's life. ...more

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Apr 27, 2019 ftnrsnn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“The Distance between Me and The Cherry Tree” is a short and simple Middle Grade novel that’s suitable for all ages. The story is about a young girl losing her sight, inspired by the author's own life experiences. At the age of nine, Mafalda has been diagnosed with a rare genetic illness called Stargardt Disease, which causes progressive vision lose, and eventually blindness and there is no cure to date.

Told in perspective of the MC, this book takes the readers to dive into Mafalda’s life as th “The Distance between Me and The Cherry Tree” is a short and simple Middle Grade novel that’s suitable for all ages. The story is about a young girl losing her sight, inspired by the author's own life experiences. At the age of nine, Mafalda has been diagnosed with a rare genetic illness called Stargardt Disease, which causes progressive vision lose, and eventually blindness and there is no cure to date.

Told in perspective of the MC, this book takes the readers to dive into Mafalda’s life as the progressive of her vision becomes worst day by day. Throughout her daily routine, we can see how brave Mafalda character is. Despite knowing that she soon is going to be blind, that doesn’t stop her to live her life. We can see that she’s scared but she tries her very best not to show that by living her life without depending too much on her parents or people around her. That’s such a strong spirit.

Almost all the characters in this book are very supportive especially Estella. Instead of trying to comfort Mafalda with “good news” like her parents, Estella always being honest with her. I think there’s something we can learn from this. As a parents, it’s our job to protect our kids from any harm and I can understand the reason why her parents acted the way they did but in my opinion, it’s better if they are being honest with her, explaining the situation rather than keeping her in the dark. This way, she will feel more comfortable to share whatever it is in her mind with her parents.

Disability maybe is going to make you feel different from people, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live your life like normal people. You will need some help, YES! But that doesn’t make you less than other. Oftentimes, people treats people with disability differently, making them feel less than other people and this is so WRONG! People with disability is still a human being just like you are. They are person, who just happens to have a disability and they are perfect just like others.

Recommended! ...more

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Sep 01, 2019 Andrea rated it really liked it

Shelves: free-books, j-reads, all-the-feels, 2019-reads, family-and-friends

More reviews and book-ish content @ Club Book Mobile & Andrea RBK

The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti is the story of Mafalda, a girl who is losing her sight and will eventually be blind due to a genetic condition. As Mafalda recognizes what is to come, she reflects on what she is going to lose in the process. She also begins to see how the world around her is changing. With her fate decided, she makes a resolution to move into the cherry tree. This tree brings her ha ...more

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Feb 24, 2019 Marie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This isn't my usual kinda read but I received it in my February rep box from @booksandcharmsbox and when I read the blurb, I knew I needed to give it a whirl!
.
Mafalda is a nine-year-old girl who knows one thing: some time in the next six months her sight will fail completely.

Can Mafalda find a way through a seemingly dark future and still go to school, play football and look after her beloved cat?
With the help of her family, and her friends, Mafalda needs to discover the ...more

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Jul 21, 2019 Tory rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2019, middle-years, perspective-for-kids

I was excited by the premise of this book but overall, disappointed how it seemed like it hardly scratched the surface of Mafalda's journey into blindness and beyond. Like many others have said, Mafalda's perspective seemed SO much younger and naive than that of a fifth-grader, which was disconcerting throughout. I might have bought a second-grader thinking the solution to living with blindness is to run away and live in a cherry tree with a balloon to blow up and fly away on, but...that wasn't ...more

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Sep 11, 2018 Pauline rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a very powerful book in translation from the original in Italian. The author, like the main character Mafalda, has Stargardt Mist; a degenerative eye condition that ultimately leads to complete blindness. Nine year old Mafalda has known for some time that she will lose her sight and this story is how she confronts her fears of what she faces ahead and what she hopes to achieve, regardless of her disability. Through first person narration the reader learns about Mafalda’s experiences as t ...more

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Jun 12, 2018 caturix rated it really liked it

I’m a massive fan of Wonder, that was adapted into a film recently, and I can tell you right now I cried bucket loads by the end of the novel and I generally find I’m not a crier whatever the case, but with The Distance between Me and the Cherry tree, I can honestly say that I cried just as much if not more by the end of it.
It follows the narrative of 9 year old Mafalda who knows that within the best sixth months she’ll eventually lose her sight.
Now first off, this emotionally hit me because I ...more

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Oct 20, 2018 Lois (thecarrotstories) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Touching~

This lovely children's book, that suits all ages, talks about a little girl who has a disease that is causing her to go blind. The story narrated by this 9/10 years old girl is really powerful. It reminds me of the innocents of a child and the truth of what a child sees.

I loved the journey she (Mafalda) went through to come to terms with her illness. The lessons she learnt and the advise she received were very mind provoking. Learning to deal with fear and embrac ...more

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Apr 29, 2018 Juliat rated it it was ok

I am not at all sure whether this was worth reading. It is about a ten year old girl who is losing her sight. Unfortunately the character is very naive and simplistic and the book seems to be based perhaps in the fifties or sixties even though the child has current electronics. This could be due to it being a translation. The song mentioned is the Beatles “Yellow Submarine “ which fits in with the feel of the era of the book but there were no MP3 players then. I do not find this nostalgic just a ...more

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Jun 17, 2018 Seawood rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, kindle, 2018-book-challenge, arc-review-copy, middle-grade, netgalley-arc

I received this ebook free via Netgalley. This does not affect my review.
I'm a huge fan of childrens' books in translation and I'm so pleased that The Distance Between Me And The Cherry Tree has been added to those available in English. It would be a wonderful book to add to your #empathyday selection for KS2. Mafalda, at nine, is going blind due to a rare illness, and her story navigating the changes and losses associated with deteriorating vision is gently agonising. It feels very slightly dated i ...more

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Jun 05, 2018 Ruth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's difficult to say how much I loved this book without becoming emotional. I read and relished every word in the space of an evening.

I thought it was a beautifully told story, with a wonderful character who is going through arguably one of the biggest losses a person can suffer - the loss of their sight.

Mafalda's world is becoming misty, and the darkness is encroaching fast. She crosses off the things on her lists. One by one. And measures her vision by distances in paces. As a mother of two ...more

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May 02, 2018 Dee rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

I devoured this book in one day! Such a Sweet yet sad story about a young girl awaiting the day her darkness will come. Mafalda is 9 years old and has an illness called Stargadt disease, which affects her sight. She is slowly seeing less and less each day until the day the darkness takes over.

This is the story of her coming to terms with losing her sight and figuring out her own ways of dealing with it.

I didn't know this story was based on the authors own struggles with t ...more

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