Book Review: A Finders-Keepers Place

place“I KNEW RUTH WAS GONE the second I woke up.”

I knew I was HOOKED the minute I read that first line. Ann Haywood Leal’s (one of our school’s former teachers) second book, A Finders-Keepers Place is the kind of book that makes you think about it days after you finish the last page.

Eleven year old Esther and her sister Ruth live with Valley, their manic-depressed and neglectful mother. After Esther does a search of the house, finds her drugged out mother, cartons of  melted strawberry ice cream all over the kitchen floor, and the Mark and Pack receipt, she races to the store on her bicycle.  There she finds Ruth curled up between the packages of toilet paper on the bottom shelf of the grocery store. Forgotten, frightened and chewing on a cocktail wiener. “I got left,” she tells her sister.

A Finders-Keepers Place is a book that will crawl inside you. The characters are almost too believably real and raw. This is not a book about a pretty family who goes astray. Nothing about this family is easy. It’s a family torn upside down by harsh reality of life with poverty, neglect, and mental illness. A mother who, when she gets out of sorts, can forget her kids at the grocery store, or throw away all their appliances in the garbage because she gets a notion to live a simpler life.

Esther and Ruth are survivors who know how to hide when they need to. Who find new clothes at the Goodwill donation station and a warm meal when the cooks throw extra hamburgers out behind the restaurant. They are on a quest visiting all the town’s churches to find their father, the elusive pastor Ezekiel, who they pray will save them from this crazy life.

A Finders-Keepers Place is an honest book dealing with a reality of life most people don’t want to admit exists. Ann Haywood Leal writes with a griping honesty that will capture your emotions and twist you into knots. This is the kind of book I wish would win the Newbery.

 Ages 10+ due to mature content.

Reviewed by Mrs. Hembree

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

3 thoughts on “Book Review: A Finders-Keepers Place

  1. Hello!
    I was so excited to see A FINDERS-KEEPERS PLACE on your blog! Thank you so much for including it. I learned how to be a teacher from Mrs. Stanphill at A.G. Bell! I now live all the way in Waterford, Connecticut, which is 3,000 miles from Kirkland.
    Thanks again!
    Sincerely,
    Ann Haywood Leal

  2. Dear Mrs.Hembree

    This book sounds amazing! From what you wrote I inferred that the story plot is outstanding. I can really see what you mean when you say you love the characters.

    Sincerely,
    Caroline

    • Hi Caroline,
      Yes, I love this book because she develops the characters so well. I need to get another copy so more people can read it before Ann Leal gets here in April to talk to us about her book.
      From,
      Mrs. Hembree

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *