Starred Review Ten-year-old Ferris (nicknamed as such after being born at the local fairgrounds) is contending with a hectic household. Her beloved live-in grandmother is ailing, and Ferris can't begin to contemplate a life without her existence. Her uncle has split from her aunt and spends his days holed up in the basement, attempting to paint a history of the world; he's only managed a single foot so far. She's feeling distant from her little sister, Pinky, who spends her time terrorizing the town in an attempt to fulfill a dream of becoming an old-timey outlaw. One more thing: her grandma has gotten glimpses of a ghost in her doorway, and the ghost has a specific request that needs satisfying, and it's up to Ferris to see it through. If it sounds terrifically zany, it certainly is, but it's also wonderfully grounded in deep familial bonds, a tight-knit community, and the beautiful idea that every relationship is a love story in its own way. The kindly town and its eccentric inhabitants come to life via comical anecdotes and gorgeous descriptions, and it all sets the stage for some truly transcendent moments that will leave readers in a state of wonder, no matter their age. It's a spectacularly silly and perfectly sincere exploration of what it means to stay tenderhearted in a sometimes challenging world.High-Demand Backstory: It's a DiCamillo! That alone should get patrons lining up.

The summer before fifth grade turns out to be a “serious time, in general” for 10-year-old Emma Phineas Wilkey—known as Ferris because of her dramatic birth under a Ferris wheel—as she aids in her idiosyncratic family members’ antics and deals with the unfamiliar emotional terrain that accompanies these encounters. Ferris’s headstrong younger sister, an aspiring felon, is scheming to appear on a “Wanted” poster; Uncle Ted, who is attempting to paint a history of the world while living in Ferris’s basement, recruits Ferris to spy on his estranged wife; and Ferris’s beloved, hopeless romantic grandmother’s heart is failing. But her grandmother is more troubled by the appearance of a ghost that only she can see, so she enlists Ferris’s help in satisfying the specter’s quixotic request. Together with her soft-spoken, piano-playing best friend Billy Jackson, Ferris navigates her joyfully chaotic environment and heeds her grandmother’s wisdom: “Every good story is a love story.” Populated by offbeat, compelling characters with rich histories, this bustling and empathetic tale by DiCamillo (The Puppets of Spelhorst) ponders the courage it takes to love someone and the necessity of inconvenience in life through the eyes of one emotionally curious tween. Main characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)

Gr 3–7— "Every story is a love story." Rising fifth grader Ferris hears this wisdom from her grandmother, Charisse, and through this lens begins to notice all the ways in which the actions of her community, however bizarre they might seem at first glance, are unspoken declarations of love. There's the ghost that appears to Charisse, who wants the family to light a chandelier to reunite her with her lost love. There's Ferris's friend Billy Jackson, whose love for his mother who died in childbirth lives on through the music he plays. There's Ferris's uncle Ted and his wife Shirley, who are on the outs after he quits his job to paint a history of the world. And of course Ferris's sister Pinky, who wants to be an outlaw and doesn't seem to love anybody, though Ferris realizes later this isn't true. DiCamillo's latest work is a sweet and heartfelt effort, though it is lacking the author's typical fully fleshed-out characters. They are largely defined by their quirks, and their actions begin to feel repetitive and do not propel the story forward. For instance, it seems like Billy's sole function for much of the story is to play "Mysterious Barricades" on the piano in the background. It feels more like a three-dimensional painting than a story; each character has a role and a place, and readers are invited to look at the whole but static picture to examine the idea of love. VERDICT While dialogue shows the author's characteristic charm, the story itself is lacking a strong narrative voice and drive. Purchase where DiCamillo's other titles circulate well.— Lindsay Loup