The Lost Boy's Gift
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Kimberly Willis Holt explores themes of divorce, acceptance, intergenerational friendship, and the power that comes with noticing in The Lost Boy's Gift, an insightful middle-grade novel.
There are places where you want to go and places where you want to leave. There are also places where you want to stay.
Nine-year-old Daniel must move across the county with his mom after his parents’ divorce. He’s leaving behind his whole life—everything—and he’s taking a suitcase of anger with him. But Daniel is in for a surprise when he settles into While-a-Way Lane and meets his new neighbors—the Lemonade Girl, the hopscotching mailman, the tiny creatures, and especially Tilda Butter. Tilda knows how to look and listen closely, and it's that gift that helps Daniel find his way in that curious placed called While-a-Way Lane.
This title has Common Core connections.
Christy Ottaviano Books
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this quiet tale of community and new friendship by Holt (Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel), nine-year-old Daniel and his mother move across the county to While-a-Way Lane following his parents' divorce. Offbeat residents populate their new street: a "hopscotching mailman," a pianist-turned-secret-saxophonist, and solitary garden enthusiast Tilda Butters, who can talk to animals. Guarded Daniel blames his mother for the move and is angry with his father for not visiting; he becomes focused on securing his dad's attendance at his school production of Peter Pan. Though irritated by the energetic boy's initial visit, Tilda understands feeling abandoned, and she tries to remember that "there is good in everyone" as their lives become intertwined. However, their relationship feels sudden and undeveloped, as does the book's thesis that "everyone has a special gift" beyond "the art of noticing," few characters are explicitly shown to have one. Touches of the fantastic (chatty snakes, sympathetic fireflies) augment accessible, straightforward prose, which permeates the neighborhood personalities' lives and motivations, lending this novel a gently bustling yet intimate atmosphere. Ages 8 14.
