Josie Bloom and the Emergency of Life

In Long’s (The Magic Mirror) novel set in small-town Maine, it’s 1977, and intrepid sixth grader Josie Bloom is doing her best to make ends meet. The grandfather with whom she lives following her single mother’s death has been misplacing money and forgetting to pay bills, and he blurts non sequiturs when questioned. After discovering an unpaid mortgage bill, Josie enlists the aid of her best friend Elwyn “Winky” Wheaton, who is visually impaired due to Stargardt disease, to help her raise the money. The inventive duo tries several get-rich-quick schemes with hilariously unfortunate results (their sole yard-work customer pays them to never clean his yard again). The plot picks up when Josie and baseball-obsessed Winky become entangled with recently disgraced player Joe Viola, whose continued slump is blamed on Josie having touched his glove. Josie’s first-person narration is humorous (facts from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! inform many of her brainstorms) and sometimes poignant (as when a memory of her mother crops up); Long nails the voice of a kid trying as hard as she can to tackle adult problems on her own when the well-meaning adults in her life fall short. Ages 8–12. [em](Jan.) [/em]