Of Scars and Stardust

Gr 7–10—Claire is forced by her parents to leave her small town in Ohio for New York City after her sister Ella is brutally attacked one night in a cornfield. The facts surrounding this attack are muddled and Claire feels intense guilt for leaving Ella alone that night and is convinced, in spite of her sister's clean wounds, that it was the teeth of wolves and not a knife that destroyed her face. For two years, in a world of cell phones and email, Claire has not spoken to her sister, whom she was closer to than anyone. Suddenly, Claire gets the news that Ella has now gone missing, so she rushes back to Ohio to find her. With the help of her love interest, Grant Buchanan, she begins to piece together her past memories, town legends, and half-truths long hidden in search of not only her sister, but also the true source of the vicious attack. Claire finds a map in Ella's things, with a red circle drawn repeatedly around a town, but sets this aside and keeps searching for a clue that will help her find her sister. Eventually an orange mitten is found hundreds of miles away in a train station that is identified as Ella's. The faster paced second half tries to tie together several plot elements, especially bringing into question the narrator's reliability, but doesn't quite succeed. Readers who stick it out until the end will likely be left unsatisfied and scratching their heads.—Heather Acerro, Rochester Public Library, MN