Looking for True

September 15, 2022
Two kids in a small town join forces to rescue an unloved dog. Big-for-11 Jude lives with his mother and younger half brother; their mom works at a nursing home. Small-for-11 Gladys, who is adopted, helps her mom run an in-home day care; her dad was laid off from the auto plant. When Jude, Gladys, and a strange woman with a blue-eyed dog collide, both kids feel an immediate, wordless connection--to the dog, if not each other. When True Blue, as Gladys dubs her, disappears, Gladys and Jude find her and hide her in Jude and best friend Jabari's secret fortress on the wrong side of town, but it's not a long-term solution. Gladys' dad is allergic, and Jude's mom is afraid of dogs--how can they save True Blue from the owner who treats her poorly? Chapters from alternating close third-person perspectives show what Gladys and Jude think of themselves and each other, their deepest worries and fears, how their parents' beliefs have shaped their own, and how they are shaping each other. The protagonists are a study in contrasts, and the supporting characters bring different worldviews and advice. Jude reads White. Jabari's name and frequent, negative, othering mentions of the size, texture, and hair-product smell of Gladys' hair may indicate that they are Black. The repeated use of lame as an insult and insensitive language used to describe people with substance abuse issues detract from the otherwise moving writing. A bighearted novel that suffers from issues with representation. (Fiction. 9-13)

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October 17, 2022
Springstubb (The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe) crafts a heartfelt contemporary novel about unexpected friendship that kicks off with a Because of Winn-Dixie–tinged bond. When talkative, small-for-her age Gladys encounters quiet Jude, who’s tall for his, the 11-year-olds feel an instant connection with a seemingly mistreated mutt in their small-town neighborhood. Neither can take the hound home: Jude’s widowed mother fears dogs following a bite, and Gladys’s father is severely allergic. Desperate to save the dog that Gladys calls True Blue, the tweens hide her in an abandoned house after they discover she’s escaped from her owner’s yard. The stakes grow more complicated when Jude’s mother loses her job at a nursing home, resulting in tight finances for the family, and True Blue’s owner offers a $500 reward for the dog’s return. As each child navigates familial relationships—Gladys, who is adopted, around belonging and love, and Jude around a desire to make his mother proud—Springstubb gracefully conveys their need for both connection and independence, portraying sweet, protective relationships that each has with young children. Alternating third-person perspectives render unique characterizations. Jude cues as white; Gladys, depicted on the book’s cover with brown skin, is described as having “recalcitrant” hair that “sprang out like the rays of the sun.” Ages 8–12. Agent: Kristin Ostby, Greenhouse Literary.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
This is a neatly constructed story of two parallel characters. Gladys is a small, bright, intense eleven-year-old with a sensitive nature and quirky clothing sense. Her mom runs an in-home daycare. Jude, also eleven, is big for his age, the son of a single mother and the frequent caregiver for his little brother. Their stories are told in alternating chapters (in different typefaces) and come together when each encounters True, a neglected dog in the neighborhood. True's rescue forms the core of the action. Springstubb (The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe, rev. 9/21) does a masterly job of creating two distinct voices and sustaining our interest in the two main characters equally. A supporting cast of flawed adults and hilarious preschoolers rounds out the picture. The setting -- a town formerly prosperous but now on the skids, where folks are just scraping by, with subtle reference to the opioid crisis and the collapse of the manufacturing economy -- is one that is underrepresented in contemporary middle-grade fiction, and it mitigates against the potential soppiness of a dog-rescue story. The writing is fresh, sharp, and authentic: "This could be trouble, said his brain. Open the door, said whatever the opposite of a brain was." It's Because of Winn-Dixie (rev. 7/00) for a new generation. Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2022
This is a neatly constructed story of two parallel characters. Gladys is a small, bright, intense eleven-year-old with a sensitive nature and quirky clothing sense. Her mom runs an in-home daycare. Jude, also eleven, is big for his age, the son of a single mother and the frequent caregiver for his little brother. Their stories are told in alternating chapters (in different typefaces) and come together when each encounters True, a neglected dog in the neighborhood. True's rescue forms the core of the action. Springstubb (The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe, rev. 9/21) does a masterly job of creating two distinct voices and sustaining our interest in the two main characters equally. A supporting cast of flawed adults and hilarious preschoolers rounds out the picture. The setting -- a town formerly prosperous but now on the skids, where folks are just scraping by, with subtle reference to the opioid crisis and the collapse of the manufacturing economy -- is one that is underrepresented in contemporary middle-grade fiction, and it mitigates against the potential soppiness of a dog-rescue story. The writing is fresh, sharp, and authentic: "This could be trouble, said his brain. Open the door, said whatever the opposite of a brain was." It's Because of Winn-Dixie (rev. 7/00) for a new generation.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)