The Lost Boy's Gift

February 4, 2019
In this quiet tale of community and new friendship by Holt (Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel), nine-year-old Daniel and his mother move across the county to While-a-Way Lane following his parents’ divorce. Offbeat residents populate their new street: a “hopscotching mailman,” a pianist-turned-secret-saxophonist, and solitary garden enthusiast Tilda Butters, who can talk to animals. Guarded Daniel blames his mother for the move and is angry with his father for not visiting; he becomes focused on securing his dad’s attendance at his school production of Peter Pan. Though irritated by the energetic boy’s initial visit, Tilda understands feeling abandoned, and she tries to remember that “there is good in everyone” as their lives become intertwined. However, their relationship feels sudden and undeveloped, as does the book’s thesis that “everyone has a special gift”—beyond “the art of noticing,” few characters are explicitly shown to have one. Touches of the fantastic (chatty snakes, sympathetic fireflies) augment accessible, straightforward prose, which permeates the neighborhood personalities’ lives and motivations, lending this novel a gently bustling yet intimate atmosphere. Ages 8–14.

Justine Eyre's gentle, expressive voice is well suited to Holt's quiet story of what it's like to be the new kid in the neighborhood and the difficulty of dealing with life's changes. When 9-year-old Daniel's parents divorce, he and his mother must leave his well-loved home on a busy city street for a new house across the county on tranquil While-a-Way Lane. Eyre conveys Daniel's foul mood with punchy pacing and a sometimes forceful tone, making him quite annoying. The boy's older neighbor, Tilda Butter, whose special gift is the ability to talk with animals, is voiced in a warm, melodious tone. Eyre's understated style allows the story's little bits of magic to seem perfectly matched to the quirky goings on at While-a-Way Lane. S.G. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine