  | Full Text Reviews: Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2013 Ten-year-old Piper Lee is not happy at all that her mother is planning to get remarried. Ben, her mom’s fiancé, is okay, but he’s not like Piper’s dad, an adventure-loving pilot who died in a rescue flight attempt when Piper was six; Ben’s daughter, Ginger (also ten), is a real pain as well. The wedding looks like a done deal until Piper goes online to find Ginger’s mother (who left her husband and child years ago), unleashing trouble that threatens to break up Ben and Piper’s mom as well as sadden Ginger. The internet also leads Piper to someone who claims to have information about her dad’s crash-his body was never recovered-but she learns that not everyone online is who they claim to be. Piper finally realizes she must try to patch up things between her mom and Ben, but before they can work it all out, there’s an inmate revolt at the prison where Ben is a guard and he is taken hostage for a day. Winget’s characters are likable, working class folks with believable pasts and problems; Ben is particularly well drawn as a blue-collar guy with a slightly short fuse who nevertheless works hard to relate to Piper. Piper’s voice is authentically youthful, as are her questionable decisions, and plenty of kids will find common ground with her as she struggles with her mother’s remarriage and with the fact that her father is gone for good. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. School Library Journal - 01/01/2013 Gr 3–6—Piper Lee DeLuna thinks that life with her single mom is just fine. When she was six, her pilot father's plane went down over the Atlantic and he was never found, but she's sure that he'll come back someday. Now her mother is getting remarried, and Piper worries that once Mama gets a new last name, Daddy will never find them. Worse, her stepfather-to-be has a bratty daughter named Ginger, and Piper Lee can't imagine them ever being sisters. She comes up with a plan to stop the wedding-first, she locates Ginger's birth mother, who left years ago, hoping the woman will come back. Next she joins an online group looking for information about her lost father. When her plan actually works-in an almost-dangerous way-Piper Lee doesn't feel the happiness she so expected, and she begins to question herself and her memories. Winget's time period is ambiguous, but the gentle story is compelling, and Piper Lee is an instantly likable, flawed character with a good heart. Hand this one to kids who want realistic fiction with just a dash of excitement.—Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, IL - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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