Gather

by Kenneth M. Cadow

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Emotionally harrowing yet ultimately hopeful, this story of one teen’s journey to save his family in the face of his mother’s opioid addiction is a striking example of resilience.

A 2023 National Book Award Finalist
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

"Arguably one of the finest novels of the year."—Booklist (starred review)

A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.

Ian Gray isn’t supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn’t happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian’s adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends, and his fondness for the outdoors and for fixing things lands him work helping neighbors. But an unforeseen tragedy results in Ian and his dog taking off on the run, trying to evade a future that would mean leaving their house and their land. Even if the community comes together to help him, would Ian and Gather have a home to return to?

Told in a wry, cautious first-person voice that meanders like a dog circling to be sure it’s safe to lie down, Kenneth M. Cadow’s resonant debut brings an emotional and ultimately hopeful story of one teen’s resilience in the face of unthinkable hardships.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536231113
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	31,205
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kenneth M. Cadow is an educator and writer. Gather is his first young adult novel. About this book, he says, “In my teaching career, I have encountered dozens upon dozens of stories like Ian’s: kids whose spirits are threatened to be crushed by societal disregard. The kids who are able to pull through by the ingenuity of their skill set and the strength of their character, as well as the care of their larger communities, are some of the strongest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.” Kenneth Cadow is the father of three remarkable adults and lives with his wife and their dog, Quinnie, in Pompanoosuc, Vermont.

Editorial Reviews

08/28/2023

Ever since 10th grader Ian Gray and his mother were abandoned by Ian’s father, things at home in rural Vermont have been difficult for the family. After Ian’s mother hurts her back at work, she loses her job and becomes dependent on prescription opioids to cope with the pain. When she’s hospitalized, Ian is forced to rely on his own skills to care for their home. He quits the basketball team to look for a job, makes repairs around the house, and struggles to ready their dilapidated car for inspection. Luckily, his knack for fixing things lands him an opportunity to make money working for kind neighbors. He even pseudo-adopts Gather, the enormous stray dog that has been wandering into his family’s yard, and befriends new student Sylvia. Upon his mother’s return, she finds employment at a local diner. Ian is sure that good things are on the horizon for them, until the government threatens to repossess their land for nonpayment of taxes. Ian’s genuine first-person narration—enriched by his penchant for pithy metaphors and similes—unveils a protagonist whose innate sense of justice and tentatively hopeful perspective buoy Cadow’s sober debut. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Cadow’s debut novel portrays a challenging coming-of-age in rural Vermont with warmth, humor, and insight. Ian observes the turmoil that surrounds him with bewilderment and deadpan humor. . . . Cadow captures Ian’s engaging naïveté, which is tempered by a survivor’s unflappability and a blossoming sense of irony. . . . A heartfelt novel about the challenges of youth and the value of community.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Cadow’s first novel is, in a word, superb. The wonderfully empathic characters are fully realized, their reality enhanced by numerous flashbacks that provide context and dimensionality. The Vermont setting is deeply evocative, as is Ian’s memorable voice, through which the captivating story is told. Arguably one of the finest novels of the year.
—Booklist (starred review)

Full of sensory images and descriptive notes. . . a great ride. . . . The ground constantly shifts in this extraordinary keyhole view of addiction and its ongoing aftermath; Cadow takes his time, but delivers a realistic and compelling novel.
—School Library Journal

Ian’s genuine first-person narration—enriched by his penchant for pithy metaphors and similes—unveils a protagonist whose innate sense of justice and tentatively hopeful perspective buoy Cadow’s sober debut.
—Publishers Weekly

Gather is a stunning debut by Kenneth M. Cadow. . . . Anyone who has endured what it’s like to witness someone they love recover from addiction, struggled to afford necessities, or relied on public programs like school lunches will find themselves nodding in agreement as they absorb the words from each page. . . Cadow masterfully describes difficult experiences through melodic language I’ll be thinking about for a very long time. Having grown up in a low-income household, I couldn’t help but think of how much I would’ve appreciated this novel when I was in high school. I’m still grateful I have it now.
—Vox

This wandering but moving story of Ian's path to adulthood is full of humor and heart.
—The Star Tribune

This book, Gather, feels like one that will stay with me forever. . . seeing this depiction of extreme poverty, this depiction of parental neglect and an utter lack of resources is important. It’s a story familiar to far too many kids. And it’s a story that we adults, especially in education, need to remember. . . This well-written, moving story is one that will stick with me for a long time.
—Teen Librarian Toolbox, an SLJ Blog

There's a well-known belief in the world of education that books can act as mirrors that reflect a reader's own life and as windows that allow a peek into the lives of others. Gather is well positioned to be both.
—Seven Days

I loved Gather. The voice is fantastic. It is a wonderful novel by a wonderful writer.
—Kevin Brooks, author of The Bunker Diary and Born Scared

From the Publisher

09/22/2023

Gr 7–10—Gather is a stray dog who may have a little Airedale in him; the running joke in Cadow's debut is that everyone encountering Gather has a new guess about his mixed breed. Ian, or Dorian Gray Henry, is a white, rural Vermont teenager who has a level of self-awareness that draws readers in from the start. "She's tired, but she's not high," is what Ian notices right off about his mother, just home from the hospital. He sees through Aunt Terry's story, that his mom has finally "had some work done on that bad back of hers." Although Ian's mother attempts to stay clean, the struggle is vicious, and the narrative works to keep readers off-balance and keening for information, just as anyone who has ever lived with an addict has to. There are no straight stories with that disease, but the one here is full of sensory images and descriptive notes about this corner of rural New England—the "little copse of junipers" and "the cold November rain"—that anchor readers as they untangle exactly what a large bounding dog has to do with a frail, opioid-scarred mother. The novel covers food insecurity, poverty, and making do with little, but also grudging love of scattershot family, and Ian's wry but upbeat fix-it attitude rolls with really hard punches. He is wise beyond his years, but he has had to be; his slow-motion long-way-around conversational style demands patience of readers, especially in the early chapters. Book talk it and tell teenagers to hang on. It's a great ride. VERDICT The ground constantly shifts in this extraordinary keyhole view of addiction and its ongoing aftermath; Cadow takes his time, but delivers a realistic and compelling novel.—Kimberly Olson Fakih

School Library Journal

★ 2023-08-11
Family matters; friends, both two- and four-legged, help too.

The story opens with Ian Gray’s Aunt Terry bustling around the house in anticipation of his mom’s return home from the hospital, just a week before Thanksgiving. In bits and pieces, readers learn that Mom struggles with addiction. Through this and all the subsequent challenges Ian faces, a stray dog who has wandered out of the woods adjoining his backyard becomes his anchor and steady best friend. He names the large, galumphing stray Gather. Ian recollects spending a lot of time with crusty Gramps, who liked to hunt. Mom makes a slow recovery, landing a job and a boyfriend. Between school, family, and friends, Ian’s world is heavily populated. Cadow’s debut novel portrays a challenging coming-of-age in rural Vermont with warmth, humor, and insight. Ian observes the turmoil that surrounds him with bewilderment and deadpan humor. At one point, after a potentially dangerous incident, he remarks, “Obviously I made it since I’m telling you about it.” Cadow captures Ian’s engaging naïveté, which is tempered by a survivor’s unflappability and a blossoming sense of irony. The novel has the flavor of a collection of linked stories, boosted by snappy chapter titles: “What You Come Across and What You Do with It” is a reminiscence about a fishing trip and a found jackknife but also reflects Ian’s philosophy of life. Main characters read white.

A heartfelt novel about the challenges of youth and the value of community. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews