Middle of Nowhere

by Caroline Adderson

Overview

A middle-grade novel about two maybe-orphans and their unlikely friendship with a cranky old neighbor. At first Curtis isn't that worried when his mother doesn't come home from her all-night job at the local gas station. She'll be back, he's ten out of ten positive. Besides, Curtis is used to looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, Artie. But when the landlord starts pressuring them for the rent and the authorities start to investigate, it's more than a 12-year-old can handle. Just in time, Mrs. Burt, the cranky, lonely old lady who lives across the street, offers to take Curtis and Artie to her lakeside cabin for the summer. As summer sails by and the weather grows colder, Mrs. Burt seems to be preparing to spend the winter at the cabin, and Curtis starts to worry. Have they really all just absconded to the lake for a summer holiday? Or have the two boys been kidnapped?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554981328
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	08/05/2014
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	640L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Caroline Adderson is the author of several award-winning books. Her works of adult fiction have been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She is a three-time CBC Literary Award winner, two-time winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and recipient of the 2006 Marian Engel Award for her body of work. Her children’s books include I, Bruno, nominated for the Chocolate Lily and Shining Willow book awards, Very Serious Children, winner of the Diamond Willow Award and shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award, and Jasper John Dooley. She is also the author of the picture book Norman, Speak!, forthcoming, which won the Helen Isobel Sissons Canadian Children's Story Award. She lives in Vancouver.

Read an Excerpt

“Do you understand now, boys, why I can’t ever go into an old folks’ home? Who would help me with my gas?”
“The nurses,” I said.
“Ha. They won’t. They’ll put me in diapers and leave me in the corner.”
“You’re too old for diapers, Mrs. Burt,” Artie said.
“Darn right I am.”
“Who patted your back before we came along?” I asked her.
“Nobody,” Mrs. Burt said. “It was very painful.”
We got quiet after she said that. Even Artie understood how sad it was that Mrs. Burt lived all alone, far from her daughter the Big Shot who just wanted to put her in a home for old people and not help her with her gas. He wrapped his skinny arms around her and Mrs. Burt squeezed him back.
In a quavery voice, she told us, “But I got you now, don’t I? We’re helping each other out.”

Editorial Reviews

“'Do you understand now, boys, why I can’t ever go into an old folks’ home? Who would help me with my gas?'
'The nurses,' I said.
'Ha. They won’t. They’ll put me in diapers and leave me in the corner.'
'You’re too old for diapers, Mrs. Burt,' Artie said.
'Darn right I am.'"
— from the book

From the Publisher

A mother who disappears, two brothers left alone and a seemingly kindly neighbor make up the ingredients of this unsuccessful story about troubled families. Eleven-year-old Curtis has always helped care for his little brother while their mother works and attends school. Now she has not come home, rent is due and food is running out. Haunted by memories of a horrible foster-care family with whom he stayed the first time his mother left him, Curtis fears that he will be separated from his little brother. Then strange but kindly Mrs. Burt, who lives across the street, offers money and meals. When she takes them to a remote lakeside cabin in British Columbia for the summer, Curtis is slowly drawn into this brave new world of chopping wood, building an outhouse and fishing. In truth, Mrs. Burt has "absconded" with the children because she mourns her son who drowned in the lake 40 years ago. Curtis' mother has not run off but has been badly injured and is lying in a coma. In a few pages of the finale, the narrative flow abruptly wraps up, leaving too many loose ends and unanswered questions. Curtis' first-person narration necessarily limits readers' access to the puzzle, and his easy acceptance of the big reveal strains credulity. The elements of a good story are present, but its telling lacks resonance, character development and depth of understanding. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews