Kobi’s father, the Great Alighieri, is a “razzmatazz” magician, the type that pulls rabbits out of hats; her mother is a literary one, using words to “create characters” and to make those characters do “exactly what she wants them to.” After mornings at school, five-year-old Kobi spends afternoons resting near her mother who busily works at her writing. Occasionally the woman passes along Post-it notes to the child. Each square of paper has an unusual word jotted on it. Before long, the little girl has a collection of twenty-seven words, all with their own special power. Kobi learns that when she uses a flower word lost things can be retrieved; another word can ensure that people important to her return home safely; yet another makes things glow. Sadly, Kobi hasn’t discovered the magic in all of the words when her parents mysteriously disappear. They leave on a sailing trip to the South Seas, but something goes very wrong. Kobi will eventually be able to use a word that will let her see her mother and father—and be comforted.

Five years after her parents have vanished, Kobi and her older sister, Brook, are living with Grandmamma in her stylish Parisian apartment. We learn that while Kobi has her words, Brook has rituals—obsessive-compulsive ones related to numbers—to keep her safe. The girls are well-cared for, but they’re unsettled. Kobi, in particular, longs to be reunited with her parents. Eventually, with their grandmother about to marry, the two travel to Des Moines, Iowa to live with kindhearted, slightly eccentric Uncle Wim, their mother’s younger half-brother. Wim’s girlfriend, Sally, and her “dotty” mother, Patricia, an artist famous for her installations and her creative exploration of transience, also figure prominently.

Having lived many years with older people in France and having been tutored at home, the sisters have to make challenging adjustments to their new American life with Uncle Wim. Kobi has a particularly hard time getting used to school and grade-five classroom politics. Because she’s younger, Kobi can’t attend the middle school her sister does. For the first time in her life, she’s not part of a pair. Gauche, oddly dressed —and essentially an object to be mocked by the class’s queen bee and her sidekick—Kobi is befriended by an imaginative, eccentric boy. However, even his support isn’t enough. She is troubled to find herself lying and embroidering stories about her family and friends in order to cope. Ultimately, things come to a head for Kobi. Circumstances force her to confront important truths she’s been hiding from.

Sharell Byars Moranville has packed a great deal into her short, quirky novel for middle-grade girls. At first I thought this book was akin to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. In tone, it also reminded me of Canadian children’s writer Polly Horvath’s novels, including Everything on a Waffle. However, the novel moves in directions I didn’t anticipate. In the end, as much as I admired Moranville’s creativity and her ability to address more serious themes with a light and playful touch, I did not warm to the book quite as much as I expected to. Even so, I think this is a quality piece of writing that deserves an audience. ( )

I actually read an e-book edition borrowed from the library with an ISBN of either ISBN 978-0-8234-3706-1 (ebook)w or ISBN 978-0-8234-3707-8 (ebook)r.

This was a solid 4 star book from the start for me and then well into the book something happened and it became a 5 star book and for me it turned into a 5 star book. 4-3/4 stars.

I have loved many books and many characters but it’s not typical that I deeply love characters, especially multiple characters, the way I did from this book. Kobi, Wim, Sally, Brook, Norman, Grandmamma, and several others.

I especially loved Kobi from the start. It’s funny how readers approach books from our own perspectives. I immediately understood one thing but guessed wrong in a major way another thing, a thing that should have been obvious, but I know why I misinterpreted what I did. This book inspired me to think about some of my own memories from childhood. I was the “new kid” at school a few times and I could identify closely with Kobi’s experiences at her school.

I loved the subplot with Wim and Sally and their relationship, and loved Wim’s chosen profession & lifestyle and the gardening and the gardening plan.

Nothing in this book rang false to me. It’s a lovely story about loss and grief and coping and love. It’s a lovely sister story. It’s a sad but not a depressing story and there is happiness and fun and humor too, so it’s not at all too dark despite the subject matter. All the adults and all the children seemed like real people. They are good people and it was comforting to read about them, even though not all of them always exhibit good behavior.

I think the story brilliantly captures the psychology of 5 to 10 year old children and their psychology and shows some possible ways they deal with difficult emotions and life circumstances.

It would be a great bibliotherapy book for many children, particularly those with OCD or other mental health challenges, those suffering the loss of a parent or parents, kids who know someone close to them with dementia, kids who like art or writing or gardening or or collecting or math (and kids who don’t like math too) and also for kids who must move to a new home and/or new school, children who’ve suffered any sort of trauma or loss, and all children 8-12 and older readers able to enjoy an excellent children’s book.

I loved it. Thank you to Goodreads friend Hilary whose review and especially recommendation motivated me to read it as soon as I could. ( )