Where Things Come Back

Whaley, John Corey. Where Things Come Back. Atheneum, 2011. 228 pages, $16.99 ISBN: 9781442413337 (trade)

Plot Summary:

The summer the town of Lily, Arkansas saw its 15 minutes of fame was the same summer Cullen Witter’s younger brother, 15 year old Gabriel disappeared.  Lily’s fame had nothing to do with Gabriel’s disappearance, but rather the rumored reappearance of the Lazarus Woodpecker, believed to have been extinct since the 1940’s.  The whole town is caught up in the excitement surrounding the woodpecker, except for Cullen, his family, and his best friend Lucas.  They are more focused on finding Gabriel.  Lucas and Cullen search the woods and the river for weeks with no clues.  In an alternate plotline, Whaley follows Benton Sage from failing as a missionary in Ethiopia to meeting his college roommate Cabot Searcy.  Meanwhile life goes on in Lily, Cullen continues to work his job, date girls, and hang out with Lucas, until the day everything falls into place and Whaley reveals how a man in Ethiopia can affect a small town family and how a woodpecker can affect a small Arkansas town. 

Critical Review:

Whaley’s debut novel is beautifully written and a deserving winner of ALA’s William C. Morris Award.  Whaley expertly weaves two separate plotlines together revealing the answer to the mystery the reader is dying to know at the very end, what happened to Gabriel?  Cullen is a humorous and cynical observer of life and has a mix of emotions about his brother’s disappearance, at first life goes on as normal, but soon he has to start to wonder if Gabriel is still alive out there somewhere.  Even though the thought crosses Cullen’s mind he cannot fully believe his brother is dead.

Genre:

Fantasy

Mystery

Romance

Interest Level:

Grade 8 to 12

Similar Books:

Papertowns John Green

Subjects/Themes:

Missing persons

Woodpeckers

Small towns

Awards/Honors:

Michael L. Printz Award Winner 2012

Williams C. Morris Award Winner 2012

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2012

Author’s Website:

http://www.johncoreywhaley.com/

Annotation:

The small town of Lily, Arkansas is turned upside down one summer when a believed to be extinct woodpecker reappears and a local teenager disappears. 

Book Talking Ideas:

Cullen and Gabriel Witter look like and act like twins, though Gabriel is two years younger than 17 year old Cullen, so when Gabriel disappears without a trace one night Cullen and his family are devastated.  The rest of the Witter’s small town however, is distracted by the rumored reappearance the Lazarus woodpecker, which at 24 inches high is the largest woodpecker in the world.  The Lazarus woodpecker has also been extinct since the 1940’s.  So if a bird can reappear, can Gabriel? 

Why I chose to include this book:

I chose to include Where Thing Come Back because it is the 2012 Printz award winner and the 2012 William C. Morris award winner.