"Sometimes, I view my life like an outtake from The Wizard of Oz
. Like Dorothy, I crash-landed here, and the world went from black and white to color," writes 12-year-old Zoya in the diary her mother, Mimi, gives her before leaving for an unexplained 10-day absence. Adopted from Russia at age four, Zoya is encouraged to use the diary to recall her first memory—her "point of view," as Mimi calls it. But what Zoya dredges up is her abandonment on the orphanage steps—a scene so horrific that it's led to a childhood pocked by night terrors and sleepwalking. It's also initially unhelpful that Zoya's been left in the care of Leon, Mimi's old boyfriend, a magician Zoya knows only vaguely. But Leon relieves the somber mood by recruiting Zoya to be his assistant, Sonambula, a role her mother originated. In her first novel for young people, Cunningham (Dreams of Rescue
, for adults) weaves into Zoya's narrative some evocative phrases—she describes "a taxi, yellow in the night" and a neighbor is "plump with a behind like a great continental shelf"—but the lyrical writing undermines the 'tween diary conceit. In the rushed ending, Mimi returns and vague details tumble out (she was hospitalized for exploratory surgery related to cancer). Zoya is satisfied with this explanation, but readers may wonder why a mother would say so little with so much at stake. Ages 8-up. (Apr.)
