Trowbridge Road

August 10, 2020
Drawing comparisons to Bridge to Terabithia, this literary middle grade novel by Pixley (Ready to Fall) follows two lonely children awash in secrets and hurts. When Ziggy Karlo moves in with his grandmother, Nana Jean, June Bug Jordan is watching from a perch in the branches of a copper beech tree. She’s an isolated child whose father died early in the AIDS crisis, before much was known, and whose mother has been lost to mental illness and terror of germs ever since, even making June wash with bleach. Though June is at first envious of the way Nana Jean lavishes affection on Ziggy, a bullied boy with an impressive vocabulary, she soon befriends her fellow outcast and the two escape to “the ninth dimension... a place you can go only if you are magical.” Though both children have been abandoned by parents in different ways, each has a loving adult to turn to at least some of the time, with Nana Jean taking in Ziggy and June’s uncle Toby wanting desperately to help his brother’s family. Heartbreaking and sometimes emotionally difficult, this novel will appeal to young teens looking for something serious to dig into. Ages 10–up. Agent: Victoria Wells Arms, Wells Arms Literary/HSG.

September 1, 2020

Gr 5 Up-A beautifully honest account of trauma and childhood friendship that takes place in the early 1980s. June Bug Jordan has watched her world shrink after the death of her father from AIDS, a disease that is little understood and causes her mother to adopt an obsessive regime of cleaning and isolation. Left to her own devices, June watches her neighbor Nana Jean and her grandson Ziggy, who has come to stay on Trowbridge Road after a traumatic experience of his own. June Bug and Ziggy become the creators of a magical world that allows them to escape the demons of their everyday lives, as they transform into everything from dragons to farmers overlooking a snow-covered field. The story is told through June's inner monologue, and the prose feels authentic to the voice of a middle grader, albeit one who has dealt with some very heavy things. The text richly illustrates the inner lives of children, and the subject matter is handled in a way that is honest yet age appropriate. VERDICT A solid choice for mature tweens who appreciate a story with literary and fantastical elements that also tackles realistic topics.-Katie McBride Moench, New Glarus Middle and High Sch. Library, WI

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2020
Narrator June Bug Jordan watches "beanpole" Ziggy Karlo, with his "unruly mop of red hair," arrive at his grandmother's house on idyllic Trowbridge Road in the summer of 1983. The two loners quickly become friends, finding solace in the imagined magical "ninth dimension" they explore behind Ziggy's house. In reality, their lives are complicated, unhappy, and full of secrets. Ziggy is bullied for his appearance, extensive vocabulary, and active imagination; and he's staying with Nana Jean because of his mother's struggles with parenting and an abusive boyfriend. June Bug is hiding the fact that her mother suffers from mental illness and debilitating grief over her (closeted gay) husband's death from a misunderstood new disease called AIDS; Mother never leaves the house, rarely eats, and obsessively cleans everything with bleach -- including June Bug -- because "clean meant safe." As Ziggy and June Bug painfully learn, sometimes mothers haven't "figured out the right way to love," or they "don't know how to make it stick." Pixley (Ready to Fall, rev. 3/18) tackles difficult topics from the heartrending perspective of a girl slowly realizing that her family badly needs help. Descriptive language vividly renders settings and feelings, as June Bug contends with revealing the truth plus her own guilt and grief over her father. Give this emotional read to thoughtful tweens who can handle the serious subject matter.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2020
Narrator June Bug Jordan watches "beanpole" Ziggy Karlo, with his "unruly mop of red hair," arrive at his grandmother's house on idyllic Trowbridge Road in the summer of 1983. The two loners quickly become friends, finding solace in the imagined magical "ninth dimension" they explore behind Ziggy's house. In reality, their lives are complicated, unhappy, and full of secrets. Ziggy is bullied for his appearance, extensive vocabulary, and active imagination; and he's staying with Nana Jean because of his mother's struggles with parenting and an abusive boyfriend. June Bug is hiding the fact that her mother suffers from mental illness and debilitating grief over her (closeted gay) husband's death from a misunderstood new disease called AIDS; Mother never leaves the house, rarely eats, and obsessively cleans everything with bleach -- including June Bug -- because "clean meant safe." As Ziggy and June Bug painfully learn, sometimes mothers haven't "figured out the right way to love," or they "don't know how to make it stick." Pixley (Ready to Fall, rev. 3/18) tackles difficult topics from the heartrending perspective of a girl slowly realizing that her family badly needs help. Descriptive language vividly renders settings and feelings, as June Bug contends with revealing the truth plus her own guilt and grief over her father. Give this emotional read to thoughtful tweens who can handle the serious subject matter. Cynthia K. Ritter

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from April 1, 2020
Two lonely outcast preteens find truth and solace through friendship over the summer of 1983. June Bug Jordan and Ziggy Karlo share a lot in common. They both have well-meaning mothers who love them but "don't know how to make it stick"; they both have had a traumatic year; and they're both in need of a friend. June Bug's father has died of AIDS, a disease only recently discovered and still tragically misunderstood. Her devastated mother is incapacitated with deep depression and an intense germ phobia--she even makes June Bug bathe with bleach. June Bug struggles daily with guilt over the last thing she said to her father while hiding the truth of her home life from neighbors. Ziggy, a "gangly," sensitive "beanpole" of a boy with long hair and a pet ferret called Matthew, has come to live with his loving and formidable Nana Jean, down the street from June Bug, for a fresh start after a year of being bullied. The two become fast friends and, inspired by their boundless imaginations, escape to the "ninth dimension," where they can make anything they want happen just by wishing. June Bug narrates this work of historical realism with a magical, poetic quality, turning the ordinary extraordinary. June Bug and Ziggy's fanciful adventures are likely to resonate with fans of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia (1977). Primary characters seem to be white. An exceptional story for readers who feel deeply. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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