Deftly juggling a handful of surrealistic elements, Printz Honor author A.S. King (Please Ignore Vera Dietz) crafts a wholly original work of fiction that is as bizarre as it is satisfying.
Seventeen-year-old Stanzi won't take off her white lab coat and dissects frogs with a clinical passion that distracts her from the family tragedy her parents drink to forget. She's in love with Gustav, who is building a red helicopter that's not technically invisible, but Stanzi can see it only on Tuesdays. China, Stanzi's best friend, has literally turned inside out, ever since her nasty encounter with a boy who wouldn't take no for an answer: "She just turns herself over and over, esophagus to rectum, like a human Lava Lamp." And pathological liar Lansdale Cruise "is like Pinocchio except her hair grows, not her nose." Add in a dangerous man in a bush who trades handmade alphabet letters for kisses, daily bomb scares at the high school and the pervasive pressure of standardized testing, and the carefully crafted plot still makes sense.
The poetic, playful and poignant story weaves together the points of view of myriad characters who are all dealing with trauma, and all looking for love and redemption. Each copes with stress, violence, turmoil and the dysfunctional adults in their lives by taking extraordinary self-protective measures. Ultimately, it is only when they are ready to face their demons head-on that true healing begins. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators