Porcupine

Tilly, best known for her acting career, enters children's fiction with a poignant although predictable story of three abandoned children finding a new home on a Canadian farm. Narrator Jack (short for Jacqueline) is devastated when the father she idolizes is killed while serving in a Canadian peacekeeping unit in Afghanistan. As bills mount, her deeply shaken mother proves incapable of meeting greater responsibilities, and in an act of desperation, drives the children cross-country to their great-grandmother in Alberta and leaves to start over in the city. It quickly becomes evident that she has no intention of resuming her role in the family, and their grandmother (characterized by Jack as a “mean old bitch”) is now their guardian. Jack's unwavering determination to keep up the spirits of her spoiled younger sister and her learning-disabled younger brother will move readers, and her gradual recognition of her mother's self-centeredness and her great-grandmother's love is realistic. But other aspects of the novel, like the symbolic significance of “petting” a porcupine—a trick taught to Jack by her younger brother at the conclusion—feel imposed on the story. Minor characters appear vaguely familiar, reflecting stock personalities. The story has depth, but it's uneven. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)