Tree. Table. Book.
by Lois Lowry
Intermediate    Clarion/HarperCollins    208 pp.
4/24    9780063299504    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780063299528    $9.99

At the start of the story, eleven-year-old Sophia Henry Winslow presents three words to remember. “Listen carefully. This will be important…I’ll explain later.” Sophia is a keen observer, and readers benefit from her straightforward descriptions of her small-town New Hampshire community, a running commentary on how to write a story, and—most of all—the things she notices, or willfully does not notice, about others, most specifically her very best friend and next-door neighbor, Sophie Gershowitz, age eighty-eight. The impending visit of Sophie’s adult son (“Aaron the Accountant from Akron is an Annoyance”), along with upsetting overheard conversations between her parents about her friend’s medical condition, inspire the girl to do a little armchair-diagnosing via a borrowed Merck Manual. While covertly testing Sophie’s memory (“Ask the patient to recall three objects after a three-minute delay”), she learns even more about her friend’s past and eventually comes to terms with the inevitable regarding her living situation. The best solution is not hiding Sophie in the abandoned house across the street, one of many amusing, and poignant, details that prevent the story from turning maudlin by staying true to one idiosyncratic and well-drawn child’s voice and perspective—and through Lowry-esque observations on the equally well-rounded, well-meaning, and imperfect secondary cast of characters around her.

From the May/June 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.