Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Ollie's parents are artists. Her mother is an innovative sculptor; her father, along with his friend and partner, Apollo, does meticulous restoration work. But to Ollie's distress, neither of them are present at the moment. Her father has disappeared, perhaps to France with his new girlfriend, on some obscure mission. Her mother, as she did once before, has taken to her bed, too depressed to eat, wash, or focus on her daughter's worries. That leaves Ollie, an artist in her own right, free to roam a pregentrified Manhattan Soho with friends Alex and Richard, seeking clues to her father's whereabouts. The story isn't much of a mystery in the traditional sense. By the time readers discover what's happened to him, key elements about his disappearance are almost forgotten. As Ollie herself notes about mysteries, the clues in books are all "tidy arrows pointing toward a logical conclusion." But not in meandering reality. What this is, however, is a brilliant mediation on the artistic life, the way shapes and color infuse perception, how concentration can lead to illumination, and how creation is a gift available to all in myriad forms. These messages don't present heavily, they shimmer, mostly because Tucker's writing is exquisite and as precise as brushstroke. A remarkable debut.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Sixth-grader Olympia—called Ollie by her best friends, Richard and Alex—is left fending for herself when her father disappears and her mother experiences a major depressive crisis.A vividly depicted urban landscape firmly establishes this novel in the SoHo of 1981, where Ollie lives in a converted industrial loft and picks up packs of cigarettes and Tab at a store on Broadway for her mom. A talented artist, Ollie's mom has stopped getting out of bed since Ollie's father, an art restorer, embarked on a clandestine trip to France a week before. At first glance, this elegantly nostalgic and leisurely paced story, sparingly illustrated with delicate pencil drawings, is a mystery involving a valuable wood carving on which Ollie's dad and his business partner, Apollo, were working. However, there are so many other themes at play—including the intricacies of friendships, the pain of living with depression, and art's ability to create meaning out of life's ordinary and sometimes-difficult circumstances—that it defies simple genre categorization. A host of honest, flawed, deeply sympathetic characters that are poignant and funny are at once unique and familiar. Ollie, her parents, and Alex seem to be white by default, Apollo grew up in Poland, and Richard is a black boy of Haitian heritage. There is realistic ethnic diversity reflected in secondary and background characters.Lovely, sad, hopeful, and memorable. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Sixth-grader Olympia—called Ollie by her best friends, Richard and Alex—is left fending for herself when her father disappears and her mother experiences a major depressive crisis.A vividly depicted urban landscape firmly establishes this novel in the SoHo of 1981, where Ollie lives in a converted industrial loft and picks up packs of cigarettes and Tab at a store on Broadway for her mom. A talented artist, Ollie's mom has stopped getting out of bed since Ollie's father, an art restorer, embarked on a clandestine trip to France a week before. At first glance, this elegantly nostalgic and leisurely paced story, sparingly illustrated with delicate pencil drawings, is a mystery involving a valuable wood carving on which Ollie's dad and his business partner, Apollo, were working. However, there are so many other themes at play—including the intricacies of friendships, the pain of living with depression, and art's ability to create meaning out of life's ordinary and sometimes-difficult circumstances—that it defies simple genre categorization. A host of honest, flawed, deeply sympathetic characters that are poignant and funny are at once unique and familiar. Ollie, her parents, and Alex seem to be white by default, Apollo grew up in Poland, and Richard is a black boy of Haitian heritage. There is realistic ethnic diversity reflected in secondary and background characters.Lovely, sad, hopeful, and memorable. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

It-s spring 1981, and Ollie, 12, is trying her best to keep her sculptor mother-s latest depressive episode a secret. Her mom hasn-t gotten out of bed since a week after Ollie-s art restorer father fled mysteriously to France in the middle of the night, leaving behind a cryptic note for Ollie alone. The cautious girl declines to share either piece of information with the sympathetic grown-ups in her life, including her father-s business partner, the dependable Apollo, who teaches her about mixing pigments-and with whom her father quarreled about an enigmatic wooden statue before he left. Ollie herself is an observant and talented sketch artist, and her creative sensibility shines through in Murphy-s spot illustrations and the lovely first-person narrative (a building is said to be -wearing its own fire escape like the hard jewelry on the girls outside the bars on St. Mark-s Place-). Tucker skillfully balances themes of mental illness, friendship, and creativity under tough circumstances in her memorable debut. The vibrant, eccentric characters are authentic, the early-1980s SoHo setting is clearly wrought (rich with descriptive details such as fad diets and artist-in-residence lofts), and the Konigsburg-tinged art mystery satisfies. Ages 8-12. Author-s agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (June)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-8 Olympia is a 12-year-old living in New York with her artist parents when her father suddenly leaves their family for France. After her father leaves, her mother spirals into a deep depression and never leaves her bed. Upon his departure, her father leaves her a secret note, and Olympia, with her friends Richard and Alex, must solve the mystery of why her father has disappeared so suddenly, and who is he running fromand running to. This book covers tough topics such as depression, a parent leaving the family for unknown reasons, the complexities of adult relationships, and more. The aspect of the art mystery gives the story a lighter tone to complement the dark happenings in Olympia's personal life and family. VERDICT A strong selection for any middle school child whose parent may have left, and a great way to spark a difficult discussion between parents and children. Maeve Dodds, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC