THE MUM HUNT

Esmie, the 11-year-old narrator of this engaging novel, complains that no one makes enough of a fuss over her: not her widower father, an overworked police detective; not Juliette, the family's feisty 22-year-old French au pair, so bold as to have her own social life; and certainly not her 15-year-old brother, Matty, who splits his time between bickering with Esmie and with their father. Deciding that her father is lonely, Esmie joins forces with Juliette and Matty to place a personals ad in the newspaper in hopes of finding him a wife. The plan hits some snags, for example, when Esmie, after watching The Sound of Music, begins to think that Juliette would make the ideal stepmother, and when an elaborately plotted blind date backfires. The author, a Londoner making her U.S. debut, nimbly balances the tale's ample humor with genuinely poignant elements, including Esmie's imaginary conversations with a photograph of the mother she never knew and Matty's struggle to assert his independence from their father. The tale's ending is satisfying if a tad overly tidy, but the dialogue and the family dynamics are entirely convincing and affecting. Ages 10-up. (June)