Wonderland

June 25, 2018
Featuring sympathetic characters and a gratifying resolution, this novel by O’Connor (Wish) celebrates friendship human and canine alike. Fourth-grade graduate Mavis is tired of moving from one town to the next, following her mother’s every whim, but they’re on the road again, headed from Hadley, Ga., to Landry, Ala., where her mother will be housekeeper for the “rich” Tully family. Mavis’s one hope is that they will stay in Landry long enough for her to find a real best friend, and her wish comes true quicker than she expects when she meets Mrs. Tully’s daughter, Rose. Although the girls are complete opposites (Mavis is impulsive and daring; Rose is fearful and keen to follow rules), they have a common goal: finding a new hound for kind Mr. Duffy, who has been sad since his dog, Queenie, passed away. Meanwhile, Henry, a runaway greyhound hiding in the woods, is looking for a new owner. Told in alternating perspectives by Mavis, Rose, and Henry, the book highlights the girls’ differences and the positive impact the friends make on each other’s lives. Ages 8–12. Agent: Barbara Markowitz, Barbara Markowitz Literary Agency.

July 15, 2018
When her unreliable mom is hired to cook and clean for a wealthy Alabama family, Mavis is hopeful they'll stay long enough for her to have a best friend.The Tullys' daughter, Rose, is just Mavis' age, and things looks promising, but the timid girl has been so browbeaten by her overbearing, haughty mother that she's forgotten how to have fun. Mavis may be poor, but she has spirit enough for both of them. Rose spends most of her time with the elderly gatekeeper of Magnolia Estates, but ever since Mr. Duffy's dog died he's been slipping up at work, and Rose's mother is anxious to have him fired. Mavis and Rose hatch a scheme to unite him with a stray dog they call Henry, who's actually an escapee from Wonderland, a dog track, and who may be euthanized since his racing days are over. O'Connor, a master storyteller, presents this moving tale from the alternating viewpoints of the girls and Henry, using their unique narrative voices to craft an affecting story of loneliness and the redemptive powers of the human (and dog) spirit. The racial identities of Mr. Duffy and Mavis are kept deliberately vague (although she is pale-skinned on the cover, just like Rose), but it's very clear that they are the underclass, evocatively contrasted against Mrs. Tully's mistaken sense of superiority that even Rose learns to fight.A richly satisfying exploration of the logic and determination with which children work to make things right. (Fiction 10-12)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2019
Mavis Jeeter, whose mother moved them to Landry, Alabama, to be the Tully family's new housekeeper, introduces herself to lonely Rose Tully: "I'm Mavis. You be my best friend, okay?" Rose agrees, and together they help Mr. Duffy, a guard at Rose's gated community, overcome his own loneliness after the death of his dog. What distinguishes this heartwarming novel is its depth of characterization--small moments reveal much.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2018
Mavis Jeeter's peripatetic single mother moves from job to job and state to state, thus denying Mavis the thing she wants most: a best friend. When the two arrive in Landry, Alabama, where her mother will work as a housekeeper for the Tully family, the first person Mavis meets is the daughter, ten-year-old Rose Tully. Mavis introduces herself with: I'm Mavis. You be my best friend, okay? Rose, also lonely and a near-?prisoner to her mother's judgmental and hoity-toity disposition, agrees immediately. Of course, it takes more than a few words to establish a friendship, and neither girl is adept at the process. What they have in common, though, is a desire to help Mr. Duffy, a guard at Rose's gated community, overcome the loneliness brought on by the death of his dog, Queenie. The two girls find a replacement for Queenie, but convincing Mr. Duffy that he wants another dog is an entirely different matter. What distinguishes this novel is its depth of characterization, how O'Connor shows readers who the characters are rather than telling them. Small moments, such as Rose silently enduring her mother's constant criticism or Mavis boldly entering the Tully household without permission, reveal much. This heartwarming novel also demonstrates that while dogs may be revered as man's best friend, there's no substitute for the human kind. betty carter

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)