Stealing Our Way Home

Galante’s deeply empathic novel—told in alternating chapters by 10-year-old Pippa and her 12-year-old brother, Jack—explores sibling bonds, parental fallibility, and coping with death. After Pippa and Jack’s mother dies from cancer, their father loses control of his work, their home, and their family life, though he does a good job of loving his children while faking competence. Jack and Pippa, who hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death, both demonstrate resilience as they slowly realize that, as much as their father loves them, they can no longer count on him to be a reliable caregiver. When he takes extreme measures to secure their financial stability (and involves Jack), the children finally understand the precariousness of their situation; though the father’s desperate act seems improbable, Galante (The World from up Here) renders it entirely believable. Narrated in first-person present tense, the story has immediacy and strong momentum, both in terms of plot and emotional development. Supportive secondary characters with strong backstories are fully dimensional, and the setting—modest homes on a lake in Vermont—comes wholly to life. Ages 8–12. Agent: Stacey Glick, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (June)