A diverse cast of characters congregates at Aggie Duncan's motel. The group includes recently widowed Aggie, who's reluctantly selling her beloved motel; Willow, whose heart is broken after her mother leaves; Loretta, on a journey to learn about her birth family; and Kirby, on his way to reform school. O'Connor weaves multiple perspectives into a nuanced portrait of a special place.

With four intertwined strands of story, this accessible novel opens unconventionally with an adult character, an elderly widow who decides to sell the motel that has been her home and her business for many years. Soon three children make their way to the motel in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains: Willow, whose father decides to buy it after her mother leaves the family; Loretta, whose adoptive parents are taking her to places her recently deceased birth mother may once have known; and Kirby, unloved and now nearly unlovable, whose mother is driving him to a boarding school with a "disciplinary environment." Each wounded in some way, the characters begin to heal themselves and, sometimes unconsciously, each other during their few days together at the motel. The plainspoken text is clean, direct, and honest in its portrayal of pain and hope. Another satisfying novel with a southern setting and original characters from the author of Moonpie and Ivy (2001) and Taking Care of Moses (2004).

The lives of four families change when they intersect at a run-down motel in the middle of nowhere. For years Aggie and her late husband operated the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains. Alone now and facing a drawer of unpaid bills and endless repairs on the dilapidated motel, Aggie reluctantly puts a "For Sale" ad in the paper. Eager for a new life since his wife left, Clyde makes an offer on the motel and uproots his lonely daughter Willow to the Sleepy Time. A troubled kid, Kirby and his mom are en route to a special boys' school when their car breaks down and they show up at the motel. Filled with questions about her birth mother who has recently died, Loretta and her adoptive parents arrive at the Sleepy Time on a family vacation. As these unlikely folks come together in Aggie's tumbledown motel, they find something they need through the friendships that form. O'Connor artfully weaves together the hopes, fears, disappointments, sorrows and joys of her multi-generational cast to produce a warm and satisfying conclusion. (Fiction. 10-14)

Gr 5-8-Aggie Duncan cannot muster the energy to fix up the Sleepy Time Motel since her husband died, and with no visitors stopping by on North Carolina's Smoky Mountains back roads, she reluctantly concludes that it's time to sell. Within days of placing an ad, she has an offer from Clyde Dover, who is eager to make a new life for himself and his daughter, Willow, after his wife's desertion. They are soon joined by Loretta and her parents, who are on a journey to learn more about Loretta's birth mother, and Kirby and his mother, whose car broke down en route to a last-ditch reform school. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Aggie, Willow, Loretta, and Kirby as the four family units get to know one another and form unlikely friendships. While Clyde is eager to improve the motel, Willow shows him the wisdom of keeping some of Aggie's traditions. Angry Kirby, who has spent a lifetime living up to his label as a troublemaker, is initially irritated by Loretta's bubbling optimism, but he comes to appreciate the value of her trust. And Aggie learns that even the emptiness of her husband's absence cannot seal her heart from a girl who misses her mother. O'Connor's knack for well-developed characters and feisty protagonists is evident, as is her signature Southern charm. While the format increases the distance between readers and characters, the author's fans will find much to enjoy in this examination of family in the 21st century.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.