Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J FICTION SPR | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
This is the story of what happened after Fox Street.
Mo Wren knew that eventually she, her dad, and her sister, Wild Child Dottie, would have to move from beloved Fox Street. She just never expected it to happen so soon.
At the Wrens' new place, things are very different. The name of the street--East 213th--has absolutely zero magic. And there's no Mrs. Petrone to cut her hair, no Pi Baggott to teach her how to skateboard, no Green Kingdom to explore. She's having trouble fitting in at her new school and spending a lot of time using the corner bus shelter for her Thinking Spot. Worst of all, Mo discovers that the ramshackle restaurant Mr. Wren bought is cursed. Only Dottie, with her new friends and pet lizard, Handsome, is doing the dance of joy.
For the first time in her life, Mo feels lost and out of place. It's going to take a boy who tells whoppers, a Laundromat with a mysterious owner, a freak blizzard, and some courage to help her find her way home for good.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Mo liked her life just the way it was when she lived on Fox Street. However, when her mom dies, everything seems to change. Her dad sells their house and moves the family to a new neighborhood where everything is different. Fox Street had everything: a player piano, the best burrito maker in the city, and, most of all, memories of her mother. In this sequel to What Happened on Fox Street (Harper Collins, 2010), Mo's new home is an apartment over an old restaurant that Mo is certain has a curse on it. She doesn't fit in at her new school and misses her friend Mercedes. The girls keep in touch mostly by phone, but Mercedes has problems of her own. Mo wonders if she will ever feel as if she really belongs on E. 213th Street, but she eventually makes some new friends and gains a new outlook on just what "home" really means. Readers will laugh and cry with Mo and will want to find a friend just like her.-Tammy DiBartolo, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Fans of What Happened on Fox Street (rev. 9/10) may have thought they'd been spared the misery of watching Mo Wren and her family leave their idyllic cul de sac. No such luck, as that book's sequel starts with the move in all its anguish, followed by Mr. Wren's woeful attempts to fix up the restaurant they've purchased on a busy street at the other end of town. Turns out it comes with a curse, and small-business loans are hard to come by -- the odds start to pile up fast against "The Wren House" ever opening. Mo is miserable at her new school, and while her little sister Dottie flourishes in newfound friendships, Mo sticks close to home, hanging out at the nearby bus shelter or at the neighborhood laundromat with her one new friend, the class "spazz," Shawn. Thank goodness, though, that Mo is who she is: when her sister loses her pet gecko, when her father throws out his back, or when a grandmother needs to be reminded of her own wisdom...Mo has something for each of them, and in being herself finally finds herself home. Springstubb's lively rose and unique combination of mundaneness and melodrama make her characters believable with a clarity unusual in books for this age and create an engaging story that challenges readers to consider their own world as carefully as Mo does. nina lindsay (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Mo Wren can't imagine living anywhere but Fox Streetuntil her father buys a rundown restaurant on East 213th Street. Newly named The WrenHouse, it lacks the tightly knit community that she loves, needs a total revamping and supposedly is cursed!This sequel toWhat Happened on Fox Street(2010) reintroduces the likable characters from the first book: Mo's "wild child" sister, Dottie; her unhandy father; and elderly neighbors that she misses terribly. But new ones emerge to fill her emotional cracks:Shawn, a hyperkinetic classmate, and Carmella, owner of the Soap Opera Laundromat and nurturer of the neighborhood. When the restoration of the restaurant goes awry, Mo begins to think it is cursed, especially on the night of the opening, when a freak blizzard hits. Plot details are often foreseeable and convenient but nevertheless believable; readers won't be surprised that Dottie's pet lizard gets loose and can't be found or that the homeless handyman helps with the makeover, but these elements fit right in cozily. The correlation between the Laundromat's lost and found (providing a needed article at the right time) and Mo's feelings are subtle but nicely tied together (a yellow sweater reminds Mo of her dead mother).Taken all together, the spunk of the primary characters, the dialogue and the "home-is-where-you-make-it" underlying message serve up a plateful of enjoyable story. And there's room for thirds. (Sketches not seen.)(Fiction. 8-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This sequel begins where the well-crafted What Happened on Fox Street (2010) left off. Ten-year-old Mo and her younger sister, Dottie, are still happy on Fox Street, but their father has decided to finally pursue his dream of owning a restaurant. That means moving to the other side of town, where the family will live in a small apartment over the run-down space that will become the Wren's House. As she did in the first book, Springstubb beautifully captures the emotions of loss that come with leaving all that's loved and familiar as well as the first stirrings of hope when it seems as if things just might work out. Of course, much occurs before that happens. Mo must make her way as the new girl, and in doing so, she finds unexpected friends, including an ignored fellow student and the generous soul who runs the Laundromat. As in the previous book, the girls, especially Dottie, seem older than their ages, both in the amount of work they do to help their dad and their insights into human nature. Still, readers will feel both inspired and comforted by these indefatigable sisters, whose humanity brings out the very same qualities in others.--Cooper, Ilen. Copyright 2010 Booklist
