Write Me If You Dare!

Grade 3-6-When Maddie Pruitt, 11, finds a popped balloon with a mysterious note from "Pearl Paradise" and a return address inside, she knows it is the sign for which she's been looking. Ever since her mother died three years ago, she has believed that her rituals, such as always ending the staircase on her right foot, will protect her family from further harm. Maddie is content to cook and care for her beekeeper father and grandfather, until her dad begins dating Blanche, whose presence upsets the family's order and routines. In the meantime, the girl begins a correspondence with Pearl, who claims to be 14, though her old-fashioned words and experiences belie this fact. Not a ghost as the imaginative girl suspects, but actually an old woman in a rest home, Pearl eventually helps her young confidante come to terms with her fears and resentment toward Blanche as well as with her mother's death. Although the essence of the story revolves around a child dealing with loss, the tone, conveyed in simple and clear language, stays light. There is also a lot of extraneous information about bees and beekeeping. Many readers will be able to identify with the protagonist's feelings in this unusual mystery.
Trish Anderson, Pinkerton Elementary School, Coppell, TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-6. Many young people have pen pals, but Maddie Pruitt is probably the only 11-year-old who believes the person writing letters to her is a ghost. There's just too much about 14-year-old Pearl Paradise that Maddie finds difficult to explain. But the relationship with Pearl couldn't have come at a better time for Maddie, who is dealing with a variety of compulsive behaviors, her mother's death, and her father's new girlfriend. Then an urgent telephone call summons Maddie to a town 200 miles away, where she finally learns the truth about her mysterious correspondent: "teenage" Pearl is actually 90 years old and dying. Offering the lonely old woman companionship in her final hours gives Maddie new perspective on life and death--hard lessons for a child, even one like Maddie, who seems mature beyond her years. Maddie's father and grandfather are drawn with complexity, and thanks to Maddie's enthusiasm for her father's unusual occupation (beekeeping), readers will learn some fascinating bee lore. Give this to readers who want another book like Janet Taylor Lisle's Gold Dust Letters (1994). Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved