What Happens Next

February 15, 2020
Abby, a, rural Wisconsin preteen with a passion for astronomy, concocts a secret plan to help her sister Blair, 18, who suffers from a life-threatening eating disorder. Middle sister Jade, 16, is preoccupied with friends and a summer job; Blair's in residential treatment while their parents ready the family's rustic resort to host media and sightseers for the forthcoming solar eclipse. Isolated, Abby, whose besties have inexplicably dropped her, attracts the interest of renowned astronomer Leo Lacamoire, a visitor who recruits her to dig up a time capsule containing a valuable telescope stolen from him. Abby agrees, provided Leo promises to introduce her to his editor, who Abby hopes will publish Planet Pirates, a collection of stories she's written and Blair's illustrated. Despite long-laid plans to view the eclipse with her astronomy-teacher dad, Abby realizes her only chance to dig up the time capsule unobserved is during the event. Into this plot vignettes from the past are interwoven in reverse chronology, a technique that brings Blair's story--the novel's strength--into heartbreaking relief. A perfectionist whose ballet hopes were stoked and manipulated by a ruthless teacher, appealing Blair is entirely convincing. But the plot's unlikely resolution rests on secondary characters' implausible, sketchy motivations--not those of the sisters readers care about. The subplot involving Abby, Leo, and the time capsule not only fails to persuade, it undermines what does. Abby's family and Leo all present white. A flawed debut--but a promising one. (Fiction. 10-12)

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May 1, 2020
Grades 5-7 For years, 12-year-old Abby's life in Moose Junction, Wisconsin, has been stable and happy. Her eldest sister, Blair, was expected to whiz through her Joffrey Ballet audition. Instead, anorexia has undermined her health, derailed her plans, and shaken the family. While Blair's away at a recovery program, the town prepares to become ground zero for viewing an upcoming solar eclipse, and astronomer Leo Lacamoire reserves one of the family's lakeside cabins. Abby, who loves astronomy, agrees to join his clandestine quest to recover an extraordinary telescope. Arrogant and self-centered, he's used to having his way, but Abby has her own agenda. The narrative is challenging in a couple of ways. First, its nonlinear structure intersperses present-day chapters with others set at different points in the past. And second, Abby tells readers on page two that she lies, though 100 pages into her involving first-person narrative, it's easy to forget that she may be an unreliable narrator. While Lacamoire's backstory is unconvincing, the family's anorexia experience and Abby's relationships with her two sisters are well drawn. A promising first novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)