The Half-True Lies of Cricket Cohen

May 1, 2017
A grandmother and granddaughter's shared escapade bares unhappy truths.Brainy, white, bespectacled Cricket Cohen, a Manhattan sixth-grader, thinks deep scientific thoughts. Her philanthropist parents don't get her, nor she them. This isn't Cricket's only problem. While she revels in cosmic truths, she bends facts about her own life a lot. This alienates would-be friends and requires her to rewrite a mostly fabricated memoir. The person who appreciates Cricket most and to whom she doesn't lie is her maternal grandmother, Dodo, a mischievous free spirit. Now living down the hall and attended by a paid helper, Dodo longs for independence and adventure. The opportunity arises when Cricket's parents go out of town, leaving her with Dodo. The two take off, booking a posh Manhattan hotel room and dining and shopping in a pricey department store. Dramatic evidence of Dodo's precarious mental state comes to the fore when store security holds her for shoplifting and alert the police, who take her and Cricket into protective custody. Alzheimer's disease is gently explained, and the family concedes that help is needed. While Cricket and Dodo are sympathetic and well-portrayed, Cricket's parents are stereotypes. Mrs. Cohen's a self-absorbed, pushy workaholic; Mr. Cohen's wishy-washy. The breezy, wink-wink depictions of NYC ethos become tiresome, though out-of-towners may appreciate some of the landmark references. The ending, Cricket's poignant rewritten memoir, is realistic but hopeful. May reassure readers with aging relatives facing Alzheimer's. (Fiction. 10-12)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 4-6-Cricket Cohen is intense, precocious, and passionate about geology; she also frequently embroiders the truth in order to make it more interesting. Cricket, who readers may recognize as Veronica Morgan's classmate from Burns's earlier novel, The Good, the Bad, and the Beagle, is basically an 11-year-old version of Kay Thompson's Eloise. Her beloved grandmother, Dodo Fabricant, shares her love of drama and make-believe, and when the two of them embark on a spur-of-the-moment adventure through Manhattan, it becomes clear that Dodo has health issues with which no one in the family has come to terms. The tone is uneven, with the narration swerving among expository descriptions of rock formations, Cricket's fantasy world, and an emotional climax. The plot generally gallops along but gets bogged down at times with some of the informational sections. Cricket and her grandmother are engaging, believable (but not always likable) characters, and the settings, including Central Park, Barney's, and the police precinct, are vividly portrayed. Dementia is explored sensitively and appropriately for this age group, although the connection the author is drawing with geology seems tenuous. The geology sections were reviewed by a professor in this field. VERDICT This title is reminiscent of a Kate DiCamillo story relocated to the big city. Its treatment of dementia makes it a worthwhile purchase, despite the book's sometimes didactic quality.-Judy Poyer, Odenton Regional Library, MD

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
Grades 4-7 Cricket is not looking forward to ending her sixth-grade year and heading to a surfing camp she's not the least bit interested in. She would much rather be focusing on more interesting things, such as plate tectonics, meteors, and the origin of life. Cricket often tells half-truths and makes up stories, and the only people she feels she can really talk to are her best friend Veronica, who recently moved schools, and grandmother Dodo. When she gets in trouble for a less-than-factual autobiographical school assignment, and her babysitter cancels at the last minute, she and Dodo bolt without telling anyone where they're going. At first, Cricket is thrilled, but as they spend more time together, it's clear that Dodo is having trouble remembering things, and Cricket realizes there may be something very serious going on with her grandmother. Cricket's funny, clever, and at times uncertain voice shines through and fills this spunky story with personality. The gentle introduction of Alzheimer's for middle-grade readers adds some nice depth to this heartening story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)