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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
Oct 2009, 288 pages
Paperback:
Dec 2010, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Tamara Ellis Smith
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New to town, Beatrice is seated next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship.
New to town, Beatrice is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day. But instead, the alphabet conspires to seat her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship. It's not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love. Still, Bea can't quite dispel Jonah's gloom and doom - and as she finds out his family history, she understands why. Can Bea help Jonah? Or is he destined to vanish?
Chapter 1
Goebbels materialized on the back patio, right before we moved to Baltimore, and started chewing through the wicker love seat. We figured he was an escapee from one of the neighbors’ houses, probably the Flanagans two doors down. The Flanagans had a lot of pets, and the parents looked the other way while their sons, Pat and Paul, fed them various foods that animals shouldn’t eat, like Twinkies and Pop Rocks, and then raced them to see how the food
affected their performance.
“Can’t blame the little guy for making a break for it,” Mom said. She picked up the gerbil and stroked his tiny head. He pooped in her hand.
“Here.” Mom passed him to me. “He’s yours.”
“Gee. Thanks.” I’m not exactly a rodent person. But we couldn’t send him back to the Flanagan Torture Chamber, so I put the gerbil in a fishbowl until we had a chance to go to the pet store and buy a cage. He tried to scamper out, but the sides of ...
Natalie Standiford skillfully reveals rich emotional landscapes as she takes the reader through the complicated, painful and gorgeous lives of her characters as they confront their losses and navigate the gaps left in their wake...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith).
Libba Bray, author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine
Sweet, sad, wonderfully quirky, and delightfully original, Natalie Standiford’s beautifully honest book made me laugh in surprise, nod in understanding, and wish that I were part robot so that my heart would stop breaking.Natalie Standiford is a rock star! Not only does she write books for children and young adults, but she is also in two bands.
One is a punk rock band called Ruffian, and the other - check this out! - is an all YA-author band called Tiger Beat. Natalie's band-mates include Libba Bray, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and Barnabas Miller. Natalie plays the bass guitar. Tiger Beat had their debut in March 2009 in the New York City independent bookstore Books of Wonder. Can you imagine rocking out to familiar cover tunes and then buying books and having the authors-musicians sign them - all at once!
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