The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Kimberly Willis Holt's The Ambassador of Nowhere, Texas is a stunning post-9/11 companion to the National Book Award-winner When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.
Decades after the Vietnam War and Toby’s life-changing summer with Zachary Beaver, Toby’s daughter Rylee is at a crossroads—her best friend Twig has started pushing her away just as Joe, a new kid from New York, settles into their small town of Antler. Rylee befriends Joe and learns that Joe’s father was a first responder on 9/11. The two unlikely friends soon embark on a project to find Zachary Beaver and hopefully reconnect him with Rylee's father almost thirty years later.
This beautiful middle grade novel is a tribute to friendships—old and new—and explores the challenges of rebuilding what may seem lost or destroyed.
Christy Ottaviano Books
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Following rising seventh grader Rylee, this post–9/11 companion to 1999's When Zachary Beaver Came to Town revisits familiar characters—including Rylee's father, Toby, that novel's protagonist—to poignantly capture a narrative centering both true friendship and national grief. After longtime town librarian and photographer Miss Myrtie Mae dies, she bequeaths Toby a photo of himself; his best friend, Cal; and Zachary Beaver, whose sideshow visited Antler, Tex., in the summer of 1971. Recently shunned by her longtime best friend, Rylee forges a new friendship with Joe, a newcomer from Brooklyn with a painful secret. Determined to locate Beaver, Rylee and Joe comb through the past at the library, piecing together the circus's timeline after 1971 while contending with their own personal upheavals. Returning readers will appreciate National Book Award winner Holt's attention to detail as she revisits characters, while newcomers will be drawn to Rylee's empathy, protectiveness of her community, and curiosity about the world and her place in it. The thoughtfully drawn setting circumvents the ease of contemporary internet access, creating a hearty mystery unraveled with local librarians' assistance and earnest intergenerational conversations. A quiet celebration of friendship, no matter how brief. Ages 10–14.
