Greetings from Nowhere

20charte - I love Greetings From Nowhere! I'm not finished yet but it's great so far. Each chapter switches off from Aggie, Willow, Kirby, and Loretta. It's interesting to read because the characters are so different. My favorite character is Loretta because she's so outgoing and tries to make everyone friends with everyone. Kirby is complicated, his mom and step dad treat him like dirt. His mom yells and smokes. And he's depressed and mad. Willow is sad because she has to move. Also, her mother, Dorothy left her. She writes pretend letters from her mother. And Aggie is old and runs Sleepy Time Motel by her self. Her husband, Harold just died. She might have to sell her motel where all her memories with Harold. This mix of characters makes for a entertaining and hard to stop reading book.

March 1, 2008
Gr 5-8-Aggie Duncan cannot muster the energy to fix up the Sleepy Time Motel since her husband died, and with no visitors stopping by on North Carolina's Smoky Mountains back roads, she reluctantly concludes that it's time to sell. Within days of placing an ad, she has an offer from Clyde Dover, who is eager to make a new life for himself and his daughter, Willow, after his wife's desertion. They are soon joined by Loretta and her parents, who are on a journey to learn more about Loretta's birth mother, and Kirby and his mother, whose car broke down en route to a last-ditch reform school. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Aggie, Willow, Loretta, and Kirby as the four family units get to know one another and form unlikely friendships. While Clyde is eager to improve the motel, Willow shows him the wisdom of keeping some of Aggie's traditions. Angry Kirby, who has spent a lifetime living up to his label as a troublemaker, is initially irritated by Loretta's bubbling optimism, but he comes to appreciate the value of her trust. And Aggie learns that even the emptiness of her husband's absence cannot seal her heart from a girl who misses her mother. O'Connor's knack for well-developed characters and feisty protagonists is evident, as is her signature Southern charm. While the format increases the distance between readers and characters, the author's fans will find much to enjoy in this examination of family in the 21st century."Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
With four intertwined strands of story, this accessible novel opens unconventionally with an adult character, an elderly widow who decides to sell the motel that has been her home and her business for many years. Soon three children make their way to the motel in North Carolinas Smoky Mountains: Willow, whose father decides to buy it after her mother leaves the family; Loretta, whose adoptive parents are taking her to places her recently deceased birth mother may once have known; and Kirby, unloved and now nearly unlovable, whose mother is driving him to a boarding school with a disciplinary environment. Each wounded in some way, the characters begin to heal themselves and, sometimes unconsciously, each other during their few days together at the motel. The plainspoken text is clean, direct, and honest in its portrayal of pain and hope. Another satisfying novel with a southern setting and original characters from the author of Moonpie and Ivy (2001) and Taking Care of Moses (2004).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)