| Family |
| Social Themes |
| Depression & Mental Illness |
| Juvenile Fiction |
| Multigenerational |
Summary
Summary
Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the TD CCBC Canadian Children's Literature Award
Kip is spending the summer with his grandmother and his five eccentric girl cousins, including Emily, who thinks she's a dog. Gran's house is about to be demolished, so anything goes, whether it's drawing maps on the walls or sawing off the knob at the bottom of the banister for a smoother ride.
When Kip bashes through an old closet, he discovers the binder his late father kept as a teenager. He's bewildered by what he finds: puzzling lists, hair samples, old newspaper clippings and business cards -- all accompanying a confidential report written by a mysterious young operative who is carrying out a secret plan to infect teenagers with a cell-altering virus.
This wonderful novel has all the Sarah Ellis hallmarks -- quirky characters, insight and wit -- underpinned by resonant themes of family, memory and the creative imagination.
Upcoming from Sarah Ellis in May 2014
Outside In: Eight years after the publication of Odd Man Out, Sarah Ellis returns to Groundwood Books with a highly anticipated new novel about family, friendship, materialism and beauty.
Author Notes
Sarah Ellis is one of Canada's most-loved children's writers. A former librarian, she is a highly sought-after children's book reviewer, literary jury member and speaker who lectures internationally on Canadian children's books. She is the winner of the Governor General's Award (Pick-Up Sticks), the Mr. Christie's Award (Out of the Blue and The Several Lives of Orphan Jack), the Sheila A. Egoff Award (The Baby Project, Back of Beyond and Odd Man Out) and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (Odd Man Out). Sarah lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Twelve-year-old Kip is spending the summer with his grandmother and his five cousins, all of whom are full of enthusiasm, action, and talk. His mother has just remarried and he is not sure what life will be like when the newlyweds get back from Hawaii. Gran's seaside home is like nowhere else. The house has been sold and will be demolished soon so Kip and the girls are free to write on the walls, paint them, and bash them with sledgehammers if they wish, and the cousins do so with gusto. The onslaught of the girls takes a while to adjust to, but Kip has the attic bedroom as his retreat. There he finds his deceased father's adolescent journal, a notebook filled with a story of espionage, secret plots, and a boy called the "Operative." Kip feels an instant connection to this story and comes to see that Tristan was the same sort of kid that he is. But this image is shattered when Kip learns that his father suffered from paranoia and delusions and that the journal was the record of life as he saw it, not a story he was writing. This is a thoughtful and often funny book of a boy on the verge of adolescence challenged to think-of his father, mother, cousins, life-in a different way. Kip must find his place in his immediate and extended family, and this summer is the first step. Give this rich novel to readers who enjoyed Hillary McKay's Casson family quartet and The Exiles series (both S & S).-Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) During a month at his grandmother's island house (slated to be torn down at the end of the summer), twelve-year-old Kip learns a difficult truth about his father, who died seven years earlier, and comes to terms with his mother's recent remarriage. In the attic, which Kip claims as his bedroom/refuge (""your dad's territory,"" according to Gran), he finds an old binder filled with his father's teenage writing, and he's immediately drawn into a story about an unnamed young operative, undercover agents, and evildoers. He's especially impressed with his dad's precise illustrations of various weapons and espionage technology. This really cool spy thriller helps Kip feel closer to the man he barely remembers; eventually, however, it becomes clear that ""Operation Mitochondria"" is really Kip's father's account of his own paranoid reality. Ellis's language is restrained but rich, and she brings readers directly into Kip's world, never wavering from his sensitive point of view; and Kip's gradual understanding of his father's mental illness is affecting. The characterization is vivid, fleshing out most of the secondary characters, including Kip's five lively girl cousins (ages seven to fourteen). In Gran's house, past and present, reality and imagination ebb and flow, ultimately giving Kip room to contemplate the changes he faces in the future. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
While his mother and new stepfather are on their honeymoon, 12-year-old Kip is sent to his grandmother's island home for a holiday that he will share with his five (count \lquote em, five) female cousins. Although he feels at first as if he has wandered into a madhouse, he soon grows accustomed to what Gran calls the monstrous regiment of women. But no sooner has he settled into his new surroundings than he discovers a mysterious binder in his attic bedroom and gradually begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the father he has never known. The too-large cast of characters makes for some confusion, and Ellis seems to be telling two quite different stories simultaneously. Kip, however, is an engaging protagonist, and his search for the truth is suspenseful enough to hold readers' attention. --Michael Cart Copyright 2006 Booklist
