With both parents out of the picture and a grandmother who can barely keep it together as her depression manifests itself in paranoia and hoarding, eleven-year old Annie B. is raising her younger brother Rew the best that she can. Then, as the Iranian hostage crisis rages in the background, Annie, Rew and Gran suddenly find themselves held hostage by the most ironic of captors. There are elements of this book that remind me of so many books I've read before (Dicey's Song, that one book about the girl with the hoarder for a mom, Dead End in Norvelt, any book where parents are missing and kids fend for themselves, Room), but it is refreshingly new.

Oh! I so enjoyed this novel. Let me recount the ways:

* The beautiful writing. As the story progresses, the descriptions of the weather and the forest made me long for home, building a setting that reminds me of some kind of Walden-esque escape, if it weren't for the secret that looms beyond the black and white striped forest our likable main character Annie B calls the Zebra. When Gewritz talks about the branches of the late summer birches criss-crossing against the sky, I was immediately transported to a place more beautiful and peaceful.

* A deep, inextricable connection to the power of stories and reading. It made me want to pick up Treasure Island and reminded me that young children are so capable of rich, complex texts. It also shows how reading is the pathway to everything: empathy, life, education, compassion, understanding, travel. And how about the librarian shout-out? Me too, friend. Me too.

* Gewritz forcing you (and therefore also the young reader, albeit more hypothetical, less meta) to reflect on the parts of you that are your parents, nurture be damned. Who we are, how why are, why we are. And forgiveness for all of those things.

* Allowing people to be real: Annie B.'s parents are complex, screwed up people. So is her grandma. Life has gotten to them, stripped them down and left them to be ravaged. But as the social worker says, even though Annie's situation isn't the best, nobody's taking her away from there. It's a matter of making the life you want to lead. This story forces the reader to recognize the enormous gray area that exists within us all. No one is completely good or completely evil. We're all just trying to get along the best we can with the bodies and minds we've been given.

This book comes highly recommended. It's scary and heart warming and the language is fantastic. It doesn't offer any easy answers to the complicated things that befall us in our lifetime. It toys with the existential moments we all have about family and loyalty, about right and wrong. And it does all this is a manner which is accessible to middle grades students.

This book was courtesy of Candlewick Press (another favorite publisher of mine!) through NetGalley. It is scheduled for publication on April 9, 2013.