Seven Clues to Home

April 1, 2020
A year after her best friend's death, a 13-year-old girl follows the birthday scavenger hunt that he once set for her, hoping to assuage her grief. In chapters that interleave Joy Fonesca's story now and Lukas Brunetti's story from one year ago, readers learn the two have been friends since second grade and share August birthdays, quirky humor, insights, and confidences. Just as they each begin to identify and acknowledge romantic feelings toward one another, misfortune complicates everything. Reading from two perspectives and in two different timelines, readers get the benefit of being inside of Lukas' thoughts while he plants the scavenger-hunt clues and Joy's musings while she follows them a year later. The story of their friendship and of the subsequent tragedy unfolds along with the scavenger hunt. This is complex storytelling from two experienced writers, with a delivery that feels both seamless and well-paced. The setting of the story, fictional Port Bennington on New York's Long Island, much like the real-life Port Washington, looks out on a fateful island with a lighthouse called Execution Rocks. Readers will be drawn to the contrast between Joy's and Lukas' families and the small moments that change everything. Joy, Lukas, and their families seem to be white. A heartfelt tour de force. (Fiction. 9-12)

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May 18, 2020
Two kids reveal the evolution of their friendship as they each progress through the scavenger hunt that one of them left before his sudden death. In the present, 13-year-old Joy is celebrating her birthday with her close-knit family, having lost her best friend, Lukas, in an accident a year earlier. She wonders if she should finally open the envelope that Lukas left her before he died—undoubtedly the first clue in their traditional birthday scavenger hunt. As she works through the clues and her grief, Joy shares memories of her friendship with Lukas and the depth of her feelings for him. In a narrative from the past, Lukas sets up the scavenger hunt on the day before Joy’s 12th birthday, debating revealing his true feelings for her. Through introspective narration, he also shares anecdotes about his deceased father, troublemaking brother, and his complicated feelings about his mother’s former boyfriend. Lukas’s fast-approaching, untimely death, and the depth of Joy’s grief afterward, add poignancy to many flashbacks as both experience the same set of clues, underscoring the duo’s genuine shared affection. Ages 8–12. Agents: (for Polisner) Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret; (for Baskin) Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary.

June 5, 2020

Gr 4-7-This tearjerker introduces readers to Joy, waking up on her 13th birthday, and Lukas, her best friend since second grade. His accidental death the previous year is the reason Joy is dreading the day. Lukas's tradition of setting up a scavenger hunt for Joy's birthday provides the structure for the story, as Joy decides to open last year's first clue and follow wherever it leads. In alternating chapters, the narrative flashes back to Lukas placing each clue. Readers will cheer Lukas on as he musters up the courage to share his burgeoning romantic feelings with Joy, and they will cheer Joy on as she bravely works through her grief and follows the clues. Both storylines end on a hopeful note, and readers can be reassured that Joy, with the help of her supportive family, will be able to move on. VERDICT This bittersweet exploration of grief and growing up will appeal to thoughtful tweens.-Laurie Slagenwhite Walters, Brighton Dist. Lib., MI

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June 1, 2020
Grades 4-7 Joy and Lukas became best friends in second grade when they discovered they were both born during the summer months. Now Joy is dreading her thirteenth birthday?her first since Lukas died last year. For years, they made scavenger hunts for each other to complete, and Joy has left Lukas' last note untouched. Feeling lost, she decides to finally open his letter and embarks on a journey through their small town in search of the clues he left behind a year ago. Polisner and Baskin have written a modern-day Bridge to Terabithia, with each chapter alternating between the perspectives of Lukas, as he hides the clues?which leads to a necklace and his true feelings?and of Joy, as she attempts to complete the hunt. Realistically, some of the clues are no longer accessible after a year, but Joy is able to work her way through the quest, address her grief for the first time, and find her way back home. A bittersweet tale of losing someone you love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)