The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother)

Starred review from January 4, 2021
It’s great to step into a magical wardrobe and be transported to a fantastic world, but what happens when you come back? Returning from a magical place called Aveinieu with a royal blue leaf in his hair, 12-year-old Aidan finds he’s been missing for six days, his inexplicable disappearance resulting in a massive, town-wide search as well as endless police questioning of his family and best friend. But joy over his safe return quickly turns to unease about his inability to account for the time—Aidan knows he won’t be believed, and his exhausted parents don’t know whether to be worried or furious. His brother, 11-year-old Lucas, previously duped by Aidan’s fanciful stories, tries to catch him in inconsistencies in a brotherly arc that moves toward emotional support. Via Lucas’s urgent narration, Levithan (19 Love Songs) validates both Lucas’s real-world experience and Aidan’s post-portal mourning, telling a well-paced story about the collision of realities in the vein of Laura E. Weymouth and Seanan McGuire. Ages 8–12. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency.

January 15, 2021
A missing boy returns from another world. Will anyone believe his story? When 12-year-old Aidan goes missing, his family and community members search everywhere in their small town. Things progress from worrying to terrifying when Aidan doesn't turn up. No note. No trace. Not even a body. Six days later, Aidan's younger brother, Lucas, finds Aidan alive in the attic they'd searched many times before. Aidan claims he was in a magical world called Aveinieu and that he got there through a dresser. While everyone around the brothers searches for answers, Lucas gets Aidan to open up about Aveinieu. Lucas, who narrates the story, grapples with the impossibility of the situation as he pieces it all together. Is any part of Aidan's story true? YA veteran Levithan's first foray into middle grade is a poignant tale of brotherly love and family trauma. The introspective writing, funneled through a precocious narrator, is as much about what truth means as about what happened. Though an engaging read for the way it makes readers consider and reconsider the mystery, the slow burn may deter those craving tidy resolutions. Bookish readers, however, will delight in the homages to well-known books, including When You Reach Me and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The cast defaults to White; the matter-of-fact inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters is noteworthy. A thought-provoking title for sophisticated readers. (Mystery/fantasy. 10-13)

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March 1, 2021
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Eleven-year-old Lucas' brother, Aidan, older by one year, has gone missing. No one can find him until, on the sixth evening of his absence, Lucas hears the thump of something falling in the attic. Curious, he investigates and finds Aidan lying on the floor, looking lost. When Lucas asks where he has been, Aidan responds "Aveinieu." Initially refusing to say any more, Aidan--under police questioning--admits that Aveinieu is a fantasy world that he accessed by going through the tall double-doored dresser in the attic (� la Narnia). Of course, no one believes him--not even Lucas at first--but as Aidan tells his brother about this strange world with a green sky, blue trees, a silver sun, and animals (including unicorns) unlike any on Earth, Lucas comes to believe. Unfortunately, the confidentiality of the police report is compromised and soon everyone knows what Aidan claims. But do they believe him? Not a chance. How Aidan and Lucas deal with this is the substance of the superb story that follows. Richly imagined, Levithan's first book for middle-grade readers is an unqualified success. At the book's end, Lucas, who narrates the story, says, "Like all honest stories, it lives within us." It will live within Levithan's readers, too.

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March 1, 2021

Gr 5 Up-When Lucas's 12-year-old brother, Aidan, disappears for six days, his family and friends are frantic with worry. But equally concerning is the fantastical story Aidan tells when he reappears six days later. It's hard to believe, yet Aidan stands by his claim that he traveled, via the attic dresser, to another world. Eleven-year-old Lucas wants to believe his brother, but it's hard when the tale seems impossible and everyone, including their concerned parents, the police, and their friends thinks Aidan is hiding the truth. In the evenings, though, after a day of managing questions and navigating escalating tension at home and at school, Aidan tells Lucas about a place called Aveinieu, where the trees have royal blue leaves and the fireflies flash in different colors. A wondrous place that Aidan wishes he never had to leave. As Aidan inches toward reintegrating into his "real" life, Lucas begins to understand the importance of truly listening to-and believing-his brother. With authentic dialogue and a diverse cast of secondary characters, Levithan knits together timely questions of how we decide who to believe and our impulse to fit stories into recognizable narratives. VERDICT An insightful story, with echoes of Narnia, that will appeal to thoughtful and sophisticated readers.-Shelley Sommer, Inly Sch., Scituate, MA

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