The Year Without Michael

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Pfeffer chronicles the disintegration of a family in this bold, heartbreaking book about a missing child. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

School Library Journal

Gr 9-12 The week before he is to begin his first year of high school, Michael Chapman disappears on the way to a friend's house. This book is a gripping chronicle of his family's reaction during the year after that disappearance. The focus of the narration is Michael's practical 16-year-old sister, Jody, who tries to support her taciturn father; her mother; and her younger sister, whose personality conflict with her mother becomes dangerously destructive under the pressure of Michael's loss. All the while Jody is trying to cope with her own anxiety and pain. The novel is beautifully structured, carefully taking readers through the first week of events, and then highlighting the difficult birthdays and holidays as well as small landmarks such as Jody's realization that she no longer thinks about setting a place at the table for Michael. These are followed by a section in which members of the family desperately seek a return to normal life, and finally by one in which the family must confront the fact that Michael might never return (he hasn't by the book's end). Readers are held not only by the suspense of wanting to know what happened to Michael but also by a need to find out what happens to his family. While topical novels abound in literature for young adults, few offer the taut structuring, sound characterization, and honest dialogue that in this case turn a book about a contemporary problem into an exploration of more universal themes. Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie