Me, the Missing, and the Dead - Hardcover

Valentine, Jenny

3.56

2,546 ratings by Goodreads

9780060850685: Me, the Missing, and the Dead

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006085068X ISBN 13: 9780060850685

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2008

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Me: Lucas Swain—I'm nearly sixteen years old and live in London. I was fairly normal until the night I found Violet. Then everything changed.

The Missing: Dad. He disappeared five years ago. Nobody knows what happened to him, and nobody cares except me. It's enough to drive you crazy.

The Dead: That's Violet . . . in the urn. Speaking of crazy—I know she's trying to tell me something, and I think it's about my father. . . .

A dead lady may not be much to go on, but my dad's out there somewhere, and it's up to me to find out where.

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About the Author:

Jenny Valentine worked in a food shop for fifteen years, where she met many extraordinary people and sold more organic bread than there are words in her first book. She studied English literature at Goldsmith's College, which almost made her stop reading but not quite. Her debut novel, Me, the Missing, and the Dead, won the prestigious Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in the UK under the title Finding Violet Park. Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children. She lives in Hay on Wye, England.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Lucas feels surrounded by the missing: his sister avoids home, his mother is absorbed in a midlife crisis, his grandfather has dementia, and his journalist father went missing years ago. With so many ghostlike family members, it’s not surprising that Lucas begins to sense a connection with the dead. While waiting in a London office lobby, a funeral urn draws his attention, and he feels an overpowering urge to know the person inside. A string of ensuing coincidences tie him—and his father—to the deceased, Violet, a famous pianist. Is she trying to communicate with him? Lucas embarks on an investigation into her life, and his spine-tingling discoveries allow him to powerfully and finally lay the memory of his father to rest. Lucas’s pitch-perfect voice, the authentic family relationships, the mild psychic element, and the poignant, coming-of-age mystery will stay with the reader long after the book ends. An award-winner in the UK, Valentine’s debut novel shines richly like the polished wood of Violet’s urn. Grades 9-12. --Heather Booth

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