Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Not-Just-Anybody Family
Fiction Series
For ages 8 to 12
Holiday House, 2008 ISBN: 0823421457
Junior Blossom is ready. After much preparation, he is finally ready to jump off the barn roof to test the wings he invented and made. Just as he gets ready for the great moment, he sees a police car driving up the road. They are coming to his house! Quickly he shouts out a warning to his brother Vern and his sister Maggie. Knowing full well that the police are not to be trusted, Vern and Maggie run into the woods to hide. Junior does his best to hide on the roof, but eventually he slides down the roof, and then down he falls to the ground.
The police, who have come to tell the children that their grandfather Pap is in jail, take the injured Junior to the hospital. Now Vern and Maggie are on their own. Their mother is touring out west with the Rodeo, Junior is in hospital, Pap is in jail, and Pap’s dog Mud is missing. What are they going to do?
After some thought Vern decides that there is only one thing he can do. He has to break into jail to be with Pap.
Told from the point of view of Pap, Vern, Maggie, Junior, Mud, and the children’s mother, this funny and often poignant book explores what the members of a family do when they are unexpectedly split up. With determination, they find ways, often unconventional ones, to bring everyone back together.
