One Mixed-Up Night

June 15, 2017
Can spending the night in Ikea cure grief? For best friends Frankie (white) and Walter (mixed-race, black/white), poring over the Ikea catalog and visiting the Ikea furniture store represents shiny-new, TV-show perfection. When they make plans to spend the night at Ikea (influenced by From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler), they're not sure exactly why, except that they are looking for something "nicer": different from their loving but careworn, imperfect homes and lives. Frankie has an additional motive: she's trying to bring back some of Walter's shine and enthusiasm after a six-month decline in his "essential Walterness." Frankie narrates with a mix of spunky honesty, compassion, and self-interest appropriate to a preteen. Her concern for Walter is endearing, and in time it is revealed that Walter's father died recently. Their night at Ikea is desperate fun, full of mishaps, with unexpected emotional highs and lows. The turning point is when Walter admits that although he is processing his grief for his father, he is being crushed by the burden of comforting his mother. With the help of an understanding security guard who finds them and has a frank discussion with their parents, changes are made that allow the friends to realize that they have everything they need to move forward. Readers will revel in Frankie and Walter's cathartic romp and learn much about grief, family, and friendship along the way. (Fiction. 10-12)

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July 1, 2017

Gr 3-6-In her debut middle grade novel, Newman writes a homage to E.L. Konigsburg's iconic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Walter and Frankie scheme to spend the night alone in an IKEA store. They have been friends their whole lives, and their families are close, and both kids are obsessed with the IKEA catalogue. In the chaos of loading the purchases into separate cars after a joint trip to IKEA for Walter's birthday, Walter and Frankie pull off a scheme to evade their parents. Frankie says at the beginning of the book, "People think that dorky geeks who read all the time are the kinds of kids who don't get into trouble." The two prove that statement wrong as they elude their parents and IKEA staff to spend most of a night in the furniture store inventing elaborate games and accidentally damaging property, until they are caught by a compassionate security guard. Frankie explains that her purpose in staying overnight in the store is to help Walter deal with his grief over his father's recent death. The book is well paced, with just enough high jinks and suspense to counterweight the sorrow. VERDICT A recommended purchase for medium-size and large collections. This would be a good classroom read-aloud title with talking points about loss and the consequences of one's actions.-Sarah Wilsman, Bainbridge Library, Chagrin Falls, OH

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