Lily and the Lost Boy

August 4, 1987
Fox writes her new novel in the understated, graceful style that won her the Newbery Medal and many other honors. The story exudes the atmosphere of a Grecian isle, Thasos, where the Corey family will spend a momentous summer. Lily ("almost 12'') and her brother Paul enjoy shared discoveries in the exotic locale, so different from home in New England, until Paul takes up with another American teenager, destructive Jack Hemmings. In light of the tragedy Jack causes, Lily sees that the boy is expected to care for himself by rejecting his neglectful parents. It's also through the girl's perceptions that the reader experiences a priceless heritage treasured by the villagers who have no ``modern conveniences'' or earthly goods. Theirs is a wealth indelibly impressed in scenes that describe daily life and a magical night at the theater, when the Coreys see Iphigeneia at Aulis at the same place where it was first performed 2000 years ago. A Richard Jackson Book. Ages 11-13.