Picture Me Gone

Starred review from August 26, 2013
Twelve-year-old Mila has remarkable powers of observation, but even more impressive is her insight into people’s minds. This may be why her college-professor father takes her with him from London to America to track down his oldest friend, who has suddenly disappeared, leaving his wife and young son behind. The mission, which takes them through upstate New York, is more complicated than Mila expects, with clues not quite adding up and disturbing secrets unveiled, including the realization that her father hasn’t been entirely honest. Teeming with complex adult problems—infidelity, marital collapse, the death of a child—this thought-provoking coming-of-age story requires that readers be at least as mature as Mila as she confronts unpleasant truths. Yet Rosoff’s (There Is No Dog) writing isn’t all gloom and doom. Mila’s sharp observations of the people she meets and the winter landscape add a fresh, poetic aura to her discoveries and the novel as a whole. “The sun is shining, the sky impossible blue,” she thinks. “The world looks so dazzling, I almost can’t bear to look at it.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency.

June 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Mila and her father go on holiday to the States to visit his best friend, Matthew, only to discover that he has gone missing. Mila's exceptional gift of observation comes in handy, revealing as many mysteries as clues. Why aren't the adults more alarmed? Why didn't he take his devoted dog with him? How could a man leave his wife and baby, and why are a woman and her son living in the cabin where Mila and her father expected to find Matthew? Narrator Suzy Jackson does a splendid job conveying through tone and pace the reflective and often sad mood of this story. She delivers with perfection English, Scottish, and American accents. The adult themes and some crude language makes this novel more appropriate for slightly older tweens and teens. This story is less of a mystery and more of a coming-of-age tale, with some twists that keep the plot moving and demonstrate Mila's abilities to decode people and her surroundings in unusual ways.-Terri Norstrom, Cook Memorial Public Library District, Libertyville, IL

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