The Shape of Lost Things

Every September 3, Rowland Waters Middle School student Skye Nickson, along with her physicist mother, celebrate her missing 14-year-old brother Finneas’s birthday. Skye rationalizes her father’s kidnapping of her brother four years ago by trying to determine if he loved her differently than he loved Finn. Her world turns upside down when Finn is found; Skye has difficulties navigating her estranged brother’s arrival and the media circus following his return. She’s also convinced that this Finn is not the real Finn: this new Finn likes olives, doesn’t talk much, and his skateboarding scar is in a different spot than she remembers. Skye decides to write to the now-retired officer who worked on her brother’s case, laying out the facts she’s gathered about the possible impostor. Simultaneously, Skye and her family attempt to repair the wedge that time has driven between them by attending therapy in this emotionally driven novel. Everett (The Probability of Everything) unravels the Nickson’s harrowing situation through the eyes of amateur photographer Skye, who’s unique perspective is often informed by her ever-present Polaroid camera. Via the siblings’ tense relationship, Everett depicts the trauma caused by the aftermath of divorce and its impact on family dynamics and mental health. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)