BookBrowse Reviews A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

From the very first page of A Short Walk Through a Wide World, debut novelist (and librarian!) Douglas Westerbeke draws readers into the story of Aubry Tourvel, a nine-year-old girl who is not an altogether sympathetic character. She's insolent, argumentative and seems to ride a fine line between being principled and being entitled. On the way home from school one day, she stumbles upon a mysterious wooden puzzle ball:

"She'd discovered it … lying on a dead man's front walk. … It sat silently on the front walk at the foot of the steps, as if it had rolled out the door all on its own. … [I]t rolled toward her just an inch or two. Aubry stood there and watched, a little amazed."

She nonchalantly kicks the puzzle ball aside, but it seems to find its way back to her, giving the object an irresistibly eerie, uneasy quality reminiscent of the ring ...