Reviews

Mo Wren, Lost and Found by Heather Ross, Tricia Springstubb

leslie_d's review against another edition

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3.0

Feeling displaced? Tricia Springstubb has the story for you in this sequel to the sweet debut What Happened on Fox Street. Mo has to move, and like many a moving story, the adjustments are hard. And she isn’t the only one who was going to miss Fox Street. (sigh). Fortunately, Springstubb creates the old kind of charm in a new kind of place. Maybe change can be for the better.

With a protagonist who thinks, and who worries, the moving is going to be especially dramatic, thus she will be a great narrator–a great voice for the worries that haunt us. How do we find our way around, make new friends, interact with the old friends, finesse the changes with family members who are changing, too, and survive a curse. Okay, the curse is more of the mysterious twist that moves the plot, and a brilliant explanation as to why things just can’t seem to go right—because we are all questioning Mr. Wren’s decision-making. But sometimes following dreams are not easy, whether they are yours or someone else’s.

The widower Mr. Wren was an absent sort in the first book, he continues to be so in this second novel as he struggles to fulfill the dream of becoming a successful restaurant owner. But in What Happened on Fox Street, Mo had her community to keep an eye out for her and her younger sister Dottie, for whom Mo is oft made responsible. His leaving Mo alone (and forgetting her once) is horribly problematic in Mo Wren, Lost and Found. He is striving to provide a life where she can have the opportunity to be a little girl, to be carefree. We just have to hope they all survive it. We have to hope that Mo again finds herself capable.

There are all sorts of lost objects and lost people and lost feelings and lost memories to be found. This is an ambitious little novel and there were moments I wondered if there was a little too much. We learn people move on. Change is hard but sometimes necessary and for a number of reasons. Sometimes we need to let things go for the sake of another person, to give someone else an opportunity (Fox Street, Parenting roles). New friends await, and could use the new face. And “Fortune favors the brave,” Mo and Da, the elderly neighbor from Fox Street, remind themselves rather determinedly.

As those people and objects that always held center for Mo Wren shift out from under her, we have Dottie who not only seems to be just fine, she’s thriving. Dottie is growing up to be quite capable and wise herself. But she has Mo. All Mo has to do is keep herself together, and find some new anchors, or perhaps remember some old ones. Maybe her dad will prove to be there for her after all? Maybe she will find a community of people she can depend on, a new extended family on East 213th.

Mo’s friend Mercedes is back, and is as issue-laden and self-absorbed with it as in the past book. Their dynamic is unusual in novels, though not unfamiliar in life; which is nice, even as it is uncomfortable. Besides being the BFF, Mercedes provides another perspective, another facet to this difficulty that is change—again. Pi Baggott reappears and is sweet and Mo is all aflutter. Yet there is an all-too-convenient (though not unrealistic) turn to accompany the other turns that facilitate Mo’s ability to move on. And while it is fantastic that the story doesn’t slough off Fox Street too easily, East 213th has a story and a character to develop as well. Mo and novel must move on. And the pacing in the progression of this move is good. As to how one speaks to the balance, it depends on the Reader. However, I don’t think the young reader will be overwhelmed; the thinking one might. We are meant to be overwhelmed. The tension is in the weight and the compounding of multiple anxieties. And just when we think it could all go right—finally!—no! Oh no!

Does Mo Wren find everything she needs, all she’s lost? Fortune does favor the brave–and bravery is needed. Because, in the end, Change is good. It’s necessary. Everyone benefits from the opportunity it brings in some form or another. Mo Wren, Lost and Found finds its optimism, its hope. Not that it was ever truly lost, as with many things, it just went missing for awhile.

***********************

Mo Wren, Lost and Found was a good sequel. It reflected back upon the first story in small ways, and was consistent with characters and voice, but Springstubb definitely worked to present a story that could be read on its own. The writing is good. As in the first novel, the clever metaphors are inspiring; a smile for the Reader. The characters, whether human, object, place, or lizard, feel original, and the eccentricities are charming. This is good middle-grade fiction. I can see openings for another installment. I liked What Happened on Fox Street a lot, and I enjoyed Mo Wren, Lost and Found, but I am not eager for another. While good, it was exhausting. I hope Springstubb is working on a new project, an other new project.

Mo Wren, Lost in Found should find connection with eldest children, more likely girls, the serious-minded, and those needing to be more serious-minded; for middle-grade, for anyone who has moved or will move or undergo a big change: though the end message is optimistic, Springstubb commiserates, it isn’t nor will it be easy [it’s refreshing that way].

Regardless of having read the final book in Lucky’s Hard Pan trilogy by Susan Patron recently, the series would have still come to mind (but please, for the sake of fairness, do not read these two series close together). Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie, Lauren Child’s inimitable Clarice Bean books, Rita Garcia-Williams’ One Crazy Summer, Belle Teal by Ann M. Martin, and How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor come to mind as well. If you enjoyed What Happened on Fox Street and Mo Wren, Lost and Found, keep an eye out for these reads—even if you didn’t, you should anyway.

L @ omphaloskepsis
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/after-fox-street/

wordnerdy's review against another edition

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3.0

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2011/09/2011-book-231.html

couillac's review against another edition

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4.0

Mo Wren never thought she would live anywhere other than the house on Fox Street, but now her father has dreams of opening a restaurant so they are moving across town to a new neighborhood and a new school. The cast of characters is quirky and memorable, and Mo's struggles to find a place for herself in her new environment is emotionally authentic. The reality of a single parent family struggling to make ends meet is also well-handled. A solid middle-grade realistic read.

bewarethebookwyrm's review against another edition

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4.0

Mo Wren has lived her whole life on Fox Street but things have changed. Her mother died and her father is left raising Mo and her sister, Dottie, all on his own. He decides to follow his dream and start his own restaurant in the city... away from Fox Street. Mo must learn to adjust to the new lifestyle as her father learns to trust the young woman she is becoming in this heartfelt coming of age story.

I, instantly, fell in love with the characters in this story. Mo tries to be mature while dealing with middle school life. Dottie is quirky and just a fun kid who, in her own way, deals with these situations by caring for old bottles or newts. Mr. Wren, who struggles with the balancing act of business owner and dad. Shawn and Carmella who welcome the Wren family with open arms but both have their own skeletons they must deal with. There is such a great collection of characters in this book that the reader just can't help but to love. This is the stand alone sequel to What Happened on Fox Street and I think that I am going to have to go out and buy that book now b/c this one was so great! I loved it!

To see full review go here http://books4linda.blogspot.com/2012/02/mo-wren-lost-and-found-by-tricia.html

mrskatiefitz's review against another edition

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3.0

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

Mo Wren, Lost and Found is the sequel to What Happened on Fox Street, and it sees the Wren family beginning its new life in a new part of town. Dad works hard to make his dream restaurant a reality, while Dottie adjusts surprisingly well to life in a new school. Mo seems to be the only one who is lost, as she copes with being away from Da, Mercedes, Pi, and everything else she loved about Fox Street.

Like the first book, this is a very introspective title, where much of the action of the plot takes place inside Mo’s mind, as she deals with her feelings on various topics. Her new neighborhood is filled with interesting people, each of whom, over time, becomes important to Mo, even in spite of her objections to the move. I don’t know if the book really covered anything new as compared with the first book, but I did enjoy finding out what happened to the Wrens and seeing how things ultimately turned out for all of them. A pet lizard, a used sweatshirt, a curse, and a laundromat also figure heavily into the plot, as does the new family in the house on Fox street, an unusual boy named Shawn, and a surprise snowstorm.

I’d recommend this book to readers who enjoyed What Happened on Fox Street, as well as Susan Patron’s Hard Pan Trilogy, and Karen Day’s A Million Miles from Boston, where characters must also deal with major life changes and figure out how to navigate adult problems.

debnanceatreaderbuzz's review

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4.0

It seems like it is so hard to find children’s books about happy families these days. First the junior high books and now the elementary school books have taken on the task of presenting Families with Big Problems. Parents Getting Divorced. Abusive Parents. Alcoholic Parents. Even Homeless Families.

Mo Wren is an exception. Yes, Mo’s mom has died, but that’s not the focus of this book. The plot centers on how difficult it is to move and make new friends when you are a child. A very common and difficult experience for kids, I think, and one that this book handles in a beautiful and realistic way.

You grow to love Mo and her little sister and her dad and all her old neighbors and her new neighbors as you read this book. Mo is befriended in her new home by the kid that annoys everyone, and Mo is torn about becoming his friend. A very common experience for kids, and, again, one that this book handles in a beautiful and realistic way.

I finished the book and found that I loved it so much that I wanted to read the first book in the series, What Happened on Fox Street. Let’s hope the author is hard at work on book three. Delightful.

Thank you to the author who sent me this copy for review.
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