Shout Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts - Hardcover

Spalding, Esta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0735264511 ISBN 13: 9780735264519

Publisher: Tundra Books, 2019

Synopsis

The third book in a Dahl-esque middle-grade series by award-winning poet and screenwriter Esta Spalding.

The plucky Fitzgerald-Trout siblings (who live on a tropical island where the grown-ups are useless but the kids can drive) are back! After losing the boat that had become their home, oldest Fitzgerald-Trout, Kim, has put finding a home back on her to-do list. When her sixth-grade history assignment offers a clue about the ruins of a volcanic house built by an explorer on Mount Muldoon, she and her siblings set out to find it.
     The castle they discover surpasses their wildest dreams. But having a permanent home offers more challenges than the Fitzgerald-Trouts expect, especially when they begin to suspect their home is haunted. The siblings must figure out how to fix the cracks in their family foundation before one of them is lost for good.

About this title

About the Author

ESTA SPALDING is the author of two books for young readers -- Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts, which was shortlisted for both the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award and the BC Red Cedar Award, and Knock About with the Fitzgerald-Trouts -- as well as several novels and poetry books for adults. She is a full-time television writer who wrote for HBO's Masters of Sex, and has garnered many screenwriting awards. When she's not writing, she kayaks, bakes, and assembles whale skeletons with her husband, a marine biologist. She lives in California with her family.

LEE GATLIN has been drawing as long as he can remember. Born and raised in south Alabama, he is an illustrator and cartoonist based in the Mississippi Delta. He is the illustrator of the forthcoming Monster School by Kate Coombs (August 2018, Chronicle). You can find his weekly cartoons in Athens, Georgia's Flagpole Magazine, and more of his work at neilaglet.tumblr.com or leegatlin.com.

Reviews

Gr 3-7-In this third and final book of the series, Toby, age six; baby Penny; Kim, age 12; Kimo, age 12; and Pippa, age nine, all are left homeless after Kimo's father steals their boat. The children have learned that grown-ups foil most everything and are good for nothing. Their parents refuse to parent, leaving their own children homeless with only one another to rely on. When Kim learns of a ruined castle, she gets the idea to make this their new home, but the castle may be haunted. With stunning clarity and deep resolve, the children set out to make their lives better and vanquish their fears. They have an endearing chant: "'cause we're Fitzgerald-Trouts. We don't give up and we don't give in. We eat chocolate radishes and chicken skin!" They live on an island of enchantment filled with lush moss, dazzling orchids, and bromeliads. They bathe in waterfalls, eat wild fruit, and cook on hot volcanic stone while mynah birds chirp overhead. Gatlin's illustrations are artfully done. VERDICT Readers will be tickled by the industrious Fitzgerald-Trouts' good humor and independence while they encounter challenge after challenge. Can be read as a standalone but is recommended for purchase as part of the series.-Lisa Gieskes, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SCα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

We had had a swim and we had eaten ginker cake and we were sitting on the rocks beside the Fitzgerald-Trout siblings’ favorite fishing stream when they began to tell me their story. Kim, the oldest, spoke first. “Kimo and I think what happened to us should be called ‘The Family Calamity,’” she said.
“Family because it had happened to the five of us,” Kimo chimed in. “And calamity because that’s a word for when things go really wrong.”
“Did things really go that wrong?” I asked.
The childrens’ five sets of eyes in their five brown faces looked at me like my question was absurd.
“Um, yes,” said Kim in a voice that exposed just how hard she and her siblings found it trying to make a grown-up understand anything important. “We’re only telling you this because we want to make sure that what happened to us doesn’t happen to any other family, ever.”
“Write that part down,” said Toby, the youngest boy, pointing to my notebook. He was holding his baby sister, Penny, in his lap and she seemed to be nodding in agreement.
I was about to put pen to paper when Pippa added, “You should put the word monster in the name too, because a monster was definitely part of the problem.”
“Yeah. Plus, it sounds way cooler.” Toby grinned at his sister.
“Okay,” I said. “‘The Family Monster Calamity.’” I wrote it in big letters at the top of the first page of my notebook. “Tell me how it started.”
That’s when they all began to talk at once. Kimo said something about their boat being taken and Kim said, “It was all the secrets.” I couldn’t make out what Toby or Pippa were saying, but it didn’t matter because as soon as the baby spoke, they all stopped talking.
“What did Penny say?” I asked them.
The baby herself answered, saying, “Wimo.”
“She’s talking about the limousine,” Toby explained. He looked more than a little sheepish.
Kim stared at me gravely. “Penny’s right. The limo was the first secret between us.”
Pippa wiped her glasses on her T-shirt and said matter-of-factly, “The limo, yes, the limo. That’s where you should start our story.”

Edition details

• Publisher: Tundra Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0735264511
• ISBN 13: 9780735264519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gatlin Lee
• Number of pages: 352