Our Homesick Songs

June 15, 2018
The fish have disappeared from Big Running, Newfoundland, leaving the town deserted and the Connor family desperate. Can young Finn and Cora take matters into their own hands and bring the scattered villagers home?Big Running has always been a small, close-knit community, dependent on the fishing industry. With resources dwindling fast, Martha and Aidan Connor hope to stave off the inevitable move off the island by sharing a job on Canada's mainland, taking turns working and staying home with their children. Finn and Cora turn to the island itself, hoping to preserve its magic. Still carefully following the rules for checking out books from the abandoned library, Cora devours travel guides and scavenges materials to create a series of oases within the abandoned houses. Gifts for her little brother, the houses--bearing exuberant names and exclamation points borrowed from the travel guides--become Mexico! England! The Philippines! But then Cora leaves, too, and Finn concocts a fantastical plan to lure the fish (and Cora) back to the island--a plan that builds upon the tall tales told to him by his accordion teacher and requires repurposing items left behind in the abandoned homes. Hooper (Etta and Otto and Russell and James, 2015) elegantly weaves into Finn and Cora's story the magical tale of their parents' courtship. Martha lost her parents to the icy waters. Aidan, too, lost his father early, because, as he has been told his whole life, all Connors are cheats. Rowing out each night, he sang his grief into the wind, and his voice carried across the water to Martha, who heard the voice of a mermaid in it. Can one of their plans save the Connors' strained marriage, find Cora, and reunite the community?This delicate elegy for a dying way of life crescendos into a love song binding family members across the waters.

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August 13, 2018
A family struggles to hold on to the only home it has ever known in this moving novel from Hooper (Etta and Otto and Russell and James). The Connor family lives in Big Running, Newfoundland, an oceanside village that has fallen on hard times after the fish have mysteriously disappeared. Parents Aiden and Martha both grew up in Big Running and decided to stay with their adolescent children, Cora and Finn, when the other families began to move away. To support the family, Aiden and Martha alternate months caring for the children and working at an energy plant north of Big Running. With little to hold their attention, Cora and Finn find their own projects: Cora restyles abandoned houses in the theme of countries she dreams of visiting; Finn investigates the local plant life and begins to formulate a theory about the missing fish. When the government halts public services and advises residents to leave the desolate town, the Connors must make drastic choices if they wish to cling to their way of life. With stark prose, Hooper captures the desperation and difficulty of life on the edge of civilization while maintaining the foundation of tenderness as her characters take care of one another in the face of near-insurmountable struggle. Heartbreaking and empathetic, Hooper’s fine novel is a haunting evocation of changing times and the power of place.

Starred review from June 1, 2018
Legend had it that once the cod ran so deep in the waters off Big Running, Newfoundland, that a sailor could walk to shore across their backs. Now the cod have disappeared, and sailors and their families are walking north and west on land in search of better jobs. The Connors, parents Aidan and Martha and children Finn and Cora, are some of the few who remain. Martha and Aidan think they've found a way to keep their family together by taking turns working at a northern logging camp, each going away for a month at a time. But Finn and Cora are looking for solutions, too, for ways to bring back the cod and their community, and, most important, to reunite their parents. But as the population dwindles, and the lure of distant lands strengthens, the children are challenged to quickly bring their plans to life. For all the bleak desolation and underlying sadness that informs the Connors' existence, there is a stronger sense of joy and wonder that infuses their magical thinking with a relentless assurance in the possibilities life can hold. Hooper follows her wise and delightful Etta and Otto and Russel and James (2015) with an equally charismatic and haunting fable about the transformative power of hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018

In the early 1990s, the villagers on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland face a great challenge: as the fish disappear, so does their way of life, forcing them to relocate. The story moves between that time and the youth and courtship of Aidan and Martha Connor in the 1970s. By 1993, Aidan and Martha have found jobs in the far-distant oil and gas fields, with each alternating one month's work while the other stays home with teenage Cora and 11-year-old Finn. This grueling schedule takes its toll on the family, and both children try to help out in different ways. Finn has a plan to lure fish back to their shores and Cora strikes out on her own to earn money. In a simple, almost childlike style touched by magical realism, Hooper (Etta and Otto and Russell and James) offers a novel reading more like a fable or fairy tale, with many references to local folk music. VERDICT This aptly titled work is like a sweet, sad ballad about keeping home and family together and will appeal to a wide range of readers. [See Prepub Alert, 3/15/18.]--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018

This follow-up to Hooper's sparkling international best seller Etta and Otto and Russell and James is set in a picturesque fishing village that has lost all its fish. While most residents have moved, the Connors stay put, with the parents working up north, son Finn trying to figure out where the fish went, and daughter Cora, who's been whimsically decorating the village's deserted houses, determined to save the town.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.