The Boy on Cinnamon Street by Phoebe Stone

“In fact,” she writes in her author’s note, “the healing process can only truly begin when we are willing to remember.” (Ages 8-12, Feb.) Starred Review Booklist March 1, 2012:Īt 4-feet 7-inches, seventh-grader Louise Terrace looks more like a fourth-grader, and she prefers to be called “Thumbelina.” She lives with her hilariously dorky, yet loving, grandparents, who give her socks made out of recycled milk cartons. Executed with wit and delicacy, Stone’s novel is made more poignant by her admission that she experienced a tragedy similar to Louise’s and reacted by blocking it out. Predictably disastrous actions ensue, but the resulting trauma is enough to shake Louise out of her torpor.

Louise has changed schools, renamed herself (Thumbelina, to reflect her pint-size proportions), and given up gymnastics her only friends are Reni and Reni’s brother, Henderson, a “volcano-loving, poetry-crazed flannel teddy bear in wire-rimmed glasses.” After Louise receives a note that reads “I am your biggest fan,” she and Reni decide it came from a hunky, high school-age, pizza delivery boy. Something so terrible happened a year earlier that she has “blocked a whole week out of conscious mind.” However, she’s still miserable, having moved from Cinnamon Street to a condo she shares with her (quirkily adorable) grandparents. There’s a dark mystery propelling this extremely well-done novel about Louise, a tiny seventh-grader nursing a deep wound. The Boy on Cinnamon Street by Phoebe StoneĪ NEW Novel by Phoebe Stone - Now Available Starred Review Publisher’s Weekly January 16, 2012: