The Chance You Won't Return

by Annie Cardi

Overview

When your mom thinks she’s Amelia Earhart, navigating high school, first love, and family secrets is like flying solo without a map.

Driver’s ed and a first crush should be what Alex Winchester is stressed out about in high school — and she is. But what’s really on her mind is her mother. Why is she dressing in Dad’s baggy khaki pants with a silk scarf around her neck? What is she planning when she pores over maps in the middle of the night? When did she stop being Mom and start being Amelia Earhart? Alex tries to keep her budding love life apart from the growing disaster at home as her mother sinks further into her delusions. But there are those nights, when everyone else is asleep, when it’s easier to confide in Amelia than it ever was to Mom. Now, as Amelia’s flight plans become more intense, Alex is increasingly worried that Amelia is planning her final flight — the flight from which she never returns. What could possibly be driving Mom’s delusions, and how far will they take her?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763662929
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/22/2014
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	215,704
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	HL710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Annie Cardi holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Her short stories have appeared in the Georgetown Review, Vestal Review, and other publications. In 2011, PEN New England selected her as a winner of the Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award for the manuscript that would become The Chance You Won’t Return, her debut novel. Annie Cardi lives near Boston with her husband and a portrait of a sea captain.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/14/2014
In Cardi's candid and multilayered debut, high school junior Alex Winchester already has a full plate when her mother begins to believe she is Amelia Earhart, writing letters to an imaginary family, studying maps, and building makeshift aeronautical devices for her "around-the-world tour." Overwhelmed by the transformation, which appears to have been sparked by the death of Alex's baby sister, Alex's father mismanages the situation and makes Alex responsible for sheltering her two younger siblings. With her own anxiety mounting, Alex begins to play into her mother's fantasy world, recognizing the immense hold that it has taken on her mother and believing that it may be the only means through which to reach her. Alex's crush on a senior provides some brightness, but it's eclipsed by her fear that he'll discover the truth about her home life. Alex's voice is caustic, honest, and studded with humor. Cardi weaves elegant metaphors and incisive dialogue throughout her chapters, concluding with a wrenching sentiment about the necessity of sometimes allowing a lost loved one to find her own way home. Ages 12–up. Agent: Taylor Martindale, Full Circle Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Cardi delves into issues of love, acceptance, loss and identity in her engaging debut novel. ... The author creates nuanced characters and presents them with their flaws and strengths intact, including a character with a mental disorder who never loses her humanity or becomes a caricature. ... [A] well-written, first-person narrative about negotiating life’s curve balls that has a realistic ending. An honest, uncompromising story.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[A] candid and multilayered debut... Alex's voice is caustic, honest, and studded with humor. Cardi weaves elegant metaphors and incisive dialogue throughout her chapters, concluding with a wrenching sentiment about the necessity of sometimes allowing a lost loved one to find her own way home.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Character development through the rendering of small detail is strong here, particularly with respect to Alex’s younger siblings, Katy and Teddy, who emerge in realistic response to their mother’s withdrawal from their lives. The result is a solidly crafted family story that sensitively explores the ripple effects of the temporary brokenness of one member.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The novel’s central theme is a clever, deft twist on the idea of leaving home. ... A novelist to watch.
—School Library Journal

Cardi presents a powerful look at family life and how it changes everything when you need to watch over your parent.
—VOYA

"The Chance You Won't Return" is a stunning debut novel featuring a profound exploration of family dynamics and the effects of mental illness. The story palpitates with a raw mix of emotions, including frustration and love, as Alex attempts to navigate a new world where her mother is no longer her mother. Cardi’s realistic treatment of the issues in this novel make for a poignant story that will stay with readers long after the final page is turned.
—TeenReads.com

From the Publisher

09/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Driver's Ed is turning junior year into a nightmare for Alex. She keeps having panic attacks when she gets behind the wheel. But that is nothing compared to home, where her mother has had a psychotic break and is convinced that she is Amelia Earhart. Alex is acutely embarrassed and desperate to keep her friends and new boyfriend in the dark about her home life. Her father needs Alex's help with taking care of her younger siblings while he tries to get his wife the care she needs. Alex often sneaks downstairs in the middle of the night to have heartfelt talks with "Amelia," in whom she can confide more easily than when she was "mom." It can be hard to sympathize with Alex and her family. Cardi has captured the all-consuming self-absorption of which teens are capable, and the family interactions read as very mean-spirited. The author has also given Alex a slightly older, slightly dangerous, enormously kind, and patient cliché of a boyfriend. But the novel's central theme is a clever, deft twist on the idea of leaving home. At a time of life when teenagers should be the ones departing, even just by learning to drive or going to dances, the author has Alex's mother threatening to abandon the family without ever saying it. As Amelia, she is looking over charts and maps, preparing for a final flight, and Alex fears that her mother may disappear and like Earhart, never return. A novelist to watch.—Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT

School Library Journal

★ 2014-02-19
Cardi delves into issues of love, acceptance, loss and identity in her engaging debut novel. High school junior Alex Winchester is a pretty typical teenager. She fights with her mom, is annoyed by her baby brother and expects her younger sister to keep her secrets. Alex does have some problems, such as a paralyzing fear of driving. And she has been noticing an alarming change in her mom's behavior, which manifests as a delusional disorder. Mrs. Winchester begins to believe that she is the long-missing, presumed-dead aviatrix Amelia Earhart. After a brief hospitalization, Mrs. Winchester returns home with her delusion intact and treats Alex as one of her fellow female aviators. Alex attempts to adapt to her new role as Amelia's friend as she tries to keep her new reality a secret from her friends and classmates, as well as her new boyfriend, senior Jim Wiley. The author creates nuanced characters and presents them with their flaws and strengths intact, including a character with a mental disorder who never loses her humanity or becomes a caricature. Readers seeking yet another teen problem novel with an unrealistically positive ending should look elsewhere. This novel delivers something far more rare: a well-written, first-person narrative about negotiating life's curve balls that has a realistic ending. An honest, uncompromising story. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews