In the Space Left Behind
Joan AckermannBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
When Colm Drucker's mother heads out to Las Vegas for her third honeymoon, Colm has plans of his own—organizing his baseball cards, playing guitar, and remodeling the family house as a surprise wedding present. But from the start of his week home alone, Colm, practical and adept, is faced with a series of unforeseen and bewildering events: His dog, Chester, meets an untimely death. His long-absent father calls out of the blue with a bizarre proposition. The beautiful Melanie Phelps kisses him suddenly and inexplicably outside the supermarket. When Colm learns that his mother plans to put the family home he dearly loves up for sale, he resolves to do everything in his power to save it, even if it means traveling across the country with the one person Colm never wanted to depend on for anything.Editorials
VOYA
Space. There are lots of empty spaces in Colm's life right now. His mother is off on her honeymoon. His sister moved out of the house a while back because she could not get along with their mother. Now Chester, Colm's companion and friend for almost fourteen years, is dead, killed by a falling window box. The summer is shaping up to be one of losses and holes that cannot easily be filled. That is when Colm's long-gone father elects to reappear. Soon Colm is accompanying his father on a cross-country trip, determined that no one and nothing will ever fill the empty spaces inside. Ackerman's debut novel is peopled with a cast of unforgettable characters whose lives intersect in interesting patterns over the course of the story as they negotiate new relationships and attempt to repair mistakes of the past. Although this theme could easily fall into familiar territory, Ackerman creates some rough terrain for her characters to navigate. The gap between Colm and his father, beautifully mirrored as they spend time at the Grand Canyon, seems unbridgeable. Exploring the depths of complex relationships, Ackerman offers readers hope that they can leap such chasms. Reviewer: Teri S. LesesneSchool Library Journal
Gr 7-10
The window box that falls and kills Colm's dog on the night that the teen's mother marries for the third time pretty much describes how his life is going. His father, who deserted the family 15 years earlier, wants to see him. His mother and her new husband are honeymooning in Las Vegas, where she's gotten a surprise job singing with a band, and they're seriously considering staying on. That would mean selling the family home, the one Colm's great-grandfather built and that Colm loves. He finally agrees to meet his dad, who offers him a proposition and a chance to earn enough money to buy the house from his mother. All he has to do is drive with his father from New England to California and he can have $70,000. The two embark on a cross-country road trip that becomes a journey of self-discovery as the 15-year-old learns that forgiveness is possible and that life can deal you emotionally satisfying surprises. With a little romance added in, this is a perfectly delightful coming-of-age novel of family, friendship, first love, and finances. Often funny, frequently poignant, and always compelling, Ackermann's first young adult novel is a great read.
—Janet HilbunCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.