All That's Missing

by Sarah Sullivan

Overview

When his grandfather’s dementia raises the specter of foster care, Arlo flees to find his only other family member in this genuine, heartening novel.

Arlo’s grandfather travels in time. Not literally — he just mixes up the past with the present. Arlo holds on as best he can, fixing himself cornflakes for dinner and paying back the owner of the corner store for the sausages Poppo eats without remembering to pay. But how long before someone finds out that Arlo is taking care of the grandfather he lives with instead of the other way around? When Poppo lands in the hospital and a social worker comes to take charge, Arlo’s fear of foster care sends him alone across three hundred miles. Armed with a name and a town, Arlo finds his only other family member — the grandmother he doesn’t remember ever meeting. But just finding her isn’t enough to make them a family. Unfailingly honest and touched with a dash of magical realism, Sarah Sullivan’s evocative debut novel delves into a family mystery and unearths universal truths about home, trust, friendship, and strength — all the things a boy needs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763661021
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sarah Sullivan is the author of Dear Baby: Letters from Your Big Brother and Passing the Music Down. This is her first novel. Sarah Sullivan has an MFA in writing for children from Vermont College and lives in West Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2013
Eleven-year-old orphan Arlo’s life with his grandfather has been tricky for some time: Poppo’s memory isn’t what it used to be. The situation worsens after Poppo has a stroke, and Arlo is forced into a children’s shelter. Determined to find his one living relative, a grandmother who hasn’t seen him in nearly a decade, Arlo hops a bus to Edgewater, Va. But his grandmother, Ida, turns out to be pretty “prickly” (“Poppo was in danger. And here Arlo was, 350 miles away, staying with a woman who was supposed to care about him but who seemed to have the heart of an armadillo”). Slowly, Arlo makes a friend—a girl named Maywood—and patches together the history of his fractured family. Meanwhile, a suspicious realtor is aggressively attempting to purchase Ida’s house. In a novel laced with mystery and a hint of the supernatural, picture book author Sullivan (Passing the Music Down) creates a strong small-town atmosphere through Edgewater’s citizens, young and old. A quietly affecting coming-of-age story about finding family and confronting change. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

There’s no pretension in this simple but deep story... A playful air of mystery hangs over the second half of the novel, and there are even tinges of a good ghost story... Art history buffs will especially appreciate the fact that the final reveal involves a long-lost painting, but the carefully detailed development of a boy learning how to deal with being caught in-between will appeal to a wide range of readers.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

A quietly affecting coming-of-age story about finding family and confronting change.
—Publishers Weekly

Some suspense, much heartache, a few tears, and smiles all tie together nicely in the end to create an outstanding debut novel.
—VOYA

Intriguing... suspenseful... [R]eaders will root for this youngster as he works to create a place he can call home.
—Kirkus Reviews

Sullivan’s debut novel beautifully balances the big issues in Arlo’s life with his smaller, more immediate concerns: his dog, an adventurous friend, and the magic of a wooden eagle carved by his father. The characters’ race is often left ambiguous, allowing readers to envision for themselves. Filled with heart, this will appeal to fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie or Eva Ibbotson’s One Dog and His Boy.
—Booklist

This title is actually several books in one. It is the story of a boy and his grandfather dealing with Alzheimer's disease; the story of a boy trying to locate his long-lost family; and an adventure. It is ultimately a ghost story, a mystery uncovered through the world of art history. In her debut work, Sullivan gives the reader vicarious experiences and feelings of the importance of home, the value of true friendship, and the strength of one's convictions.
—Library Media Connection

Sullivan artfully captures Arlo’s feelings of uncertainty and his fervent wish to create a stable home life for himself. Additionally, the author’s handling of Alzheimer’s disease and its devastating effects on families is compelling.
—School Library Journal

[Middle-grade] stories can be so rich, the characters so irresistible, even for an adult reader. So it is with 'All That's Missing' ... which deftly captures the complicated workings of an 11-year-old mind caught between the confidence of youth and the vulnerability of adolescence.
—The Denver Post

It’s rare to find a quiet, reflective middle-grade novel with a boy as the main character, and rarer still to find one this satisfying. ... With touches of magical realism, and a crime caper thrown in for good measure, this gentle book explores how every family has some question nobody wants to answer.
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Publisher

2013-09-01
After his maternal grandfather and guardian has a stroke, Arlo, an 11-year-old orphan, runs away from impending foster care to the home of his prickly paternal grandmother. In this family-lost-and-found story with a mystery element and a touch of the fantastic, Arlo moves in with his grandmother Ida, who, because of a familial estrangement, is a stranger to him. Despite her crusty demeanor, Ida is not unhappy to see him, and slowly, she and Arlo forge a connection. Ida is the best realized character in the book, more empathetic than her practical and resourceful grandchild, and the pain she tries to conceal under her hardened exterior is palpable. Although the main thrust of the tale involves the making of a family, a second story thread concerns Ida's home. A mysterious man is anxious to buy it--why? How Arlo and his new friend Maywood thwart the buyer, who turns out to be an art thief, rounds out the tale; although this plotline is intriguing and moderately suspenseful, it requires a lengthy setup, and the embedded supernatural element seems tacked on, giving the material a lumpy feel. Still, patient readers will root for this youngster as he works to create a place he can call home. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews