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Hold Fast (2013)

by Blue Balliett(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0545299888 (ISBN13: 9780545299886)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Scholastic Press

review 1: Early Pearl, along with her mother Summer, and younger brother Jubie face the humiliation and hardships of homelessness when her father Dash suddenly disappears. The three of them, missing the fourth member of their family, experience shelter life in wintry Chicago while Early does her best to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance among the world of the Harold Warren Public Library, old books, and the famous 2003 Antwerp diamond heist. She is guided by the feeling that Dash himself is right there beside her and the inspiration of Langston Hughes poetry.
review 2: Early lives in a one-room apartment with her parents and her younger brother Jubilation. Everything is going well until her father, Dash, disappears without a word and the police think ... morehe's just another runaway dad. Early thinks it has to do with Dash's part-time job, receiving and cataloging boxes of old books. Danger comes fast and furious when their apartment is broken into, their possessions destroyed, and their money stolen. At that point the family is forced to live in a city shelter. Early is determined to find out what happened to Dash but she's also trying to keep her mother and brother from sinking into depression and her family from disintegrating as can happen with shelter living. All the way through the book, the author weaves the poetry of Langston Hughes through her narrative. It's beautiful language but I'm not sure younger readers will relate to it, especially kids who have never dealt with the reality of poverty and homeless shelters and seemingly hopeless situations.Balliett's ability to paint pictures with words is clear. Told through Early's eyes, there are no romantic reveries about shelter life, about danger from unknown people for unknown reasons, about a father disappearing. On the other hand, people Early meets in the shelter are 3-dimensional with all their grand dreams, unrealistic hopes, mental illnesses, and determination to do better even though they may not know how. I think that was my favorite part of the book, the portrayal of the essential humanity of so many of the people Early meets.Realistic fiction, mystery, appropriate for middle schoolers and for younger kids who can deal with the setting and the story. This is a JF so there's a happy ending. There were times when I knew it couldn't happen that way, that the plot skipped over things it should have addressed, that people don't work that way, but in the end I wanted to believe. less

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