Anatomy of Lost Things
by Shawn K. Stout
Intermediate, Middle School    Peachtree    272 pp.
6/24    9781682635872     $18.99
e-book ed.  9781682636817    $11.99

Three eleven-year-olds each cope with loss. Tildy’s mama has suddenly returned after being gone for a long time. Still hurt and confused, Tildy worries she might do something to make her leave again. Leon—with David Attenborough, his charismatic pet Madagascar hissing cockroach, always in his pocket or on his shoulder—tries to communicate with his dead grandfather via séance. He believes this will help his grieving grandmother (and guardian) move forward. Nell and her mom have landed in this Maryland community after losing their house in a Florida hurricane. Her mom wants to keep traveling, but Nell misses their home, with its memories of her other mother. The story rotates among the perspectives of the three main characters, and peppered throughout are the backstories of the objects that hold meaning for them. Tildy has lost the amber necklace her mom gave her. Leon has found a battered candlestick perfect for contacting the spirit world. Nell carries her deceased mother’s bugle around her neck. The characters will never know the stories of these objects or how they came to pass through their lives; only readers get to see the big picture, glimpsing the objects and their impacts in a new light. Well-developed throughout, the characters, even supporting ones, are complex and interesting. This intricate web of objects and people skillfully knits together into a touching, thought-provoking, and ultimately comforting story.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.