Mo Wren, Lost and Found

July 1, 2011

Mo Wren can't imagine living anywhere but Fox Street—until her father buys a rundown restaurant on East 213th Street. Newly named The Wren House, it lacks the tightly knit community that she loves, needs a total revamping and supposedly is cursed!

This sequel to What Happened on Fox Street (2010) reintroduces the likable characters from the first book: Mo's "wild child" sister, Dottie; her unhandy father; and elderly neighbors that she misses terribly. But new ones emerge to fill her emotional cracks: Shawn, a hyperkinetic classmate, and Carmella, owner of the Soap Opera Laundromat and nurturer of the neighborhood. When the restoration of the restaurant goes awry, Mo begins to think it is cursed, especially on the night of the opening, when a freak blizzard hits. Plot details are often foreseeable and convenient but nevertheless believable; readers won't be surprised that Dottie's pet lizard gets loose and can't be found or that the homeless handyman helps with the makeover, but these elements fit right in cozily. The correlation between the Laundromat's lost and found (providing a needed article at the right time) and Mo's feelings are subtle but nicely tied together (a yellow sweater reminds Mo of her dead mother).

Taken all together, the spunk of the primary characters, the dialogue and the "home-is-where-you-make-it" underlying message serve up a plateful of enjoyable story. And there's room for thirds. (Sketches not seen.) (Fiction. 8-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011

Gr 3-6-Mo liked her life just the way it was when she lived on Fox Street. However, when her mom dies, everything seems to change. Her dad sells their house and moves the family to a new neighborhood where everything is different. Fox Street had everything: a player piano, the best burrito maker in the city, and, most of all, memories of her mother. In this sequel to What Happened on Fox Street (Harper Collins, 2010), Mo's new home is an apartment over an old restaurant that Mo is certain has a curse on it. She doesn't fit in at her new school and misses her friend Mercedes. The girls keep in touch mostly by phone, but Mercedes has problems of her own. Mo wonders if she will ever feel as if she really belongs on E. 213th Street, but she eventually makes some new friends and gains a new outlook on just what "home" really means. Readers will laugh and cry with Mo and will want to find a friend just like her.-Tammy DiBartolo, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2011
Grades 4-6 *Starred Review* This sequel begins where the well-crafted What Happened on Fox Street (2010) left off. Ten-year-old Mo and her younger sister, Dottie, are still happy on Fox Street, but their father has decided to finally pursue his dream of owning a restaurant. That means moving to the other side of town, where the family will live in a small apartment over the run-down space that will become the Wren's House. As she did in the first book, Springstubb beautifully captures the emotions of loss that come with leaving all that's loved and familiar as well as the first stirrings of hope when it seems as if things just might work out. Of course, much occurs before that happens. Mo must make her way as the new girl, and in doing so, she finds unexpected friends, including an ignored fellow student and the generous soul who runs the Laundromat. As in the previous book, the girls, especially Dottie, seem older than their ages, both in the amount of work they do to help their dad and their insights into human nature. Still, readers will feel both inspired and comforted by these indefatigable sisters, whose humanity brings out the very same qualities in others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)