Banks, Angelica. Finding Serendipity.

Banks, Angelica.  Finding Serendipity.  Macmillan/Henry Holt  2015  280p  $16.99  ISBN 978-1-62779-154-0  elem/ms  Fantasy  E-BN       

Tuesday McGillicuddy has kept a secret for years.  Her  mother is the famous author who writes under the name of Serendipity Smith.  When her mother seems to have disappeared, Tuesday wants to find her.  She finds the delicate silver thread words “The End” and realizes  how the writing works.  She begins typing her story and the thread of her words transports her into her story.  Thinking her mother must be lost in the Vivienne Small world that she writes about, Tuesday enters this world.  She joins Vivienne on adventures but learns that her story must find its own way to the end.
   

This is a beautiful, fantastical way to explain how an author enters the world of his or her characters.  In places the language is almost poetic.  The reader comes to care deeply about Tuesday and her attempt to find her way out and find her mother at the same time.

Precocious fourth graders and most fifth graders will be able to follow this story.  More mature readers who can lose themselves in a story will also be enchanted.   The writing process is defined as the author going into the story and living it. 

Summary: In this fantasy adventure, the reader may come to understand a little bit of the way an author’s mind works.  Grade 5-8.       

Fantasy-Fiction, Literature-Fiction                         --Joan Theal