Voice of Youth Advocates

Seventeen-year-old Ruby's English assignment is to define "family." For Ruby, it is a difficult task. Her father left when she was five, and her sister, Cora, left for college three years later, never to be heard from again. Now her abusive, alcoholic mother disappears. When Ruby's landlord finds her living in squalor, she is forced to move into Cora and her husband Jamie's huge house, attend posh Perkins Day School, and give up her old friends. Once close, Ruby and Cora are now strangers. Jamie's large family and holiday traditions-including a Thanksgiving "thankful list"-are foreign to Ruby. While attempting to run away during her first night, she meets her backyard neighbor, Nate, who is the consummate all-American boy-cute, smart, athletic, and with a positive outlook on life. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Used to maintaining her distance, Ruby must learn what real friendship means. Dessen has a knack for creating characters that readers care about whether main or ancillary, and it holds true for her latest work. As Ruby learns the truth about her manipulative mother, Cora's disappearance, and Nate's less-than-idyllic life, readers empathize. Secondary characters add a nice flavor as events unfold quickly over nine months. Readers can visualize the settings. Ruby's epiphanies about friends and family are natural as she learns that memories fade. The story wraps up a bit too neatly, but then, that is what a Dessen novel is all about: good story, real characters, happy ending. In yet another must-read from a fun writer, teens will have fun identifying the character from a previous book mentioned here.-Ed Goldberg.

ALA Booklist (Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2008)

Ruby hasn't had much success with family. Her father left; her protective older sister, Cora, left; and her boozing mother finally leaves, too. Ruby is alone until Cora learns of her situation and swoops in. Suddenly, Ruby finds herself living with Cora and her wealthy brother-in-law, attending  private school, and wondering just where she fits in. As in previous books, Dessen takes on a central theme re the meaning of family d spins many plots and subplots around it. Most prominent yet least successful is the thread about Cora's  relationship with boy-next-door Nate, who rescues her when she needs it, but has difficulty accepting Ruby's help, tentative at first, when she discovers he's being physically abused. Nate seems too good to be true (as does Cora's husband), while his father is a caricature. And one of the most important elements, the issue of the girls' mother lying to them, gets lost. Despite the uneven narrative, Dessen's  writing can be beautiful, and her story is involving.

Horn Book (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

A group of pond geese decides to escort a lost wild blue heron to his flock. Not only do they travel farther and higher than ever before, their experiences bind them together as a true flock. Cuffe-Perez's writing nicely depicts the geese's individual personalities, as well as working in facts about migration. Occasional full-page black-and-white illustrations propel the story.

Kirkus Reviews

Overlong but easygoing piece about a girl shifting from defensive solitude to connection. Social Services doesn't allow Ruby to stay alone in the yellow house for very long after her mother disappears, instead placing her with older sister Cora and Cora's unflappably sweet husband. Having failed in an attempt to run away the first night, Ruby decides to wait out the year until she turns 18 and can be alone forever. The narrative arc is predictable: Ruby's new school is full of rich kids but she makes friends anyway; Cora's initial coldness is actually steady loyalty (and Cora never really deserted the family long ago—mom lied); the abused boy next door is outgoing and helpful, but he needs to learn the same lesson about trust that Ruby does. The key Ruby pragmatically wears as a necklace becomes a widespread jewelry fad, just one of many unsubtle symbols and forced messages. Sentences overflow with extra clauses and unnecessary details, contributing to the book's length. Dessen's tone, however, is invitingly non-threatening and will reward patient readers. (Fiction. YA)

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

Dessen (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Just Listen; see Profile) inverts a familiar fairy tale: What if Cinderella got the prince, the castle and all its accoutrements, but wasn't remotely interested? After her mother abandons her, Ruby Cooper is flying below the radar of officialdom and trying to make it to her 18th birthday, when she's busted by the landlord and turned over to social services. Ruby is taken in by her estranged sister, Cora, who left for college a decade earlier and never looked back, and Cora's husband, Jamie, the wealthy founder of a popular social networking site. Resentful, suspicious and vulnerable, Ruby resists mightily, refusing the risky business of depending on anybody but herself, and wearing the key to her old house around her neck. All the Dessen trademarks are here—the swoon-worthy boy next door who is not what he appears to be, and the supporting characters who force Ruby to rethink her cynical worldview, among them the frazzled owner of a jewelry kiosk at the mall. The author again defines characters primarily through dialogue, and although Ruby and her love interest, Nate, sound wiser than their years, they talk the way teens might want to—from the heart. A must for Dessen fans, this will win her new readers, too. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)

School Library Journal (Thu May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Gr 3-6 Five pond geese trade security for the exhilaration of freedom to lead a lost one-eyed heron to the migration gathering in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Foolhardy Skylar has some vague memories of his first migration when he was grounded and left behind during a storm. He leads opinionated Roosevelt, stalwart Esther, pudgy Loomis, and anxious little Weedle through several adventures and scrapes to their goal. Liwska's shaded black-and-white pencil renderings work with the text to give readers a strong sense of place. Realistic geese behaviors and touches of humor keep pace with strong themes (facing fears and learning through experience). Grounded in nature, like Donna Jo Napoli's Ugly (Hyperion, 2006), Skylar also includes a fatal scene with a hunter. The writing is strong, though a few wobbly phrases such as "The sun opened the horizon like an invitation" and geese descending from the sky "as if delivered of it" may need some clarification. With its evocative descriptions and some challenging vocabulary, this book makes a great read-aloud. Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA