Everlasting Lane — Andrew Lovett

A captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood. In a timeless coming-of-age tale as charming and haunting as the movie Stand By Me , Andrew Lovett's Everlasting Lane tells the story of what happens when nine-year-old Peter's father dies and his mother moves them from the city to a house in the countryside, for what seem to Peter to be mysterious reasons. He's soon distracted, though, by the difficulties of being the new, shy kid at school, and he befriends the other two kids who seem to be outcasts: overweight Tommie and too-smart-for-her-own-good Anna-Marie. Together they try to weather the storm of bullying teachers and fellow students, by escaping into explorations of the seemingly bucolic countryside. There, though, they find other outcasts from society such as cranky Mr. Merridew, who won't leave his cottage in the woods, and Scarecrow Man, who stands in the fields searching the skies. And meanwhile, Peter is disturbed by the growing awareness that his own mother may be some sort of outcast, tooand that she's hiding something from him in a locked room in the attic, a room she's expressly forbidden him from entering. Written in beautiful prose, Everlasting Lane is a captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood: sun-soaked, nostalgic, with the soft focus and warm glow of a Polaroidbut it's darker than it seems. Will Peter and his mother find the light in that darkness? From the Hardcover edition.