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Summary
Summary
From NYT bestselling author Blue Balliett, the story of a girl who falls into Chicago's shelter system, and from there must solve the mystery of her father's strange disappearance.
Where is Early's father? He's not the kind of father who would disappear. But he's gone . . . and he's left a whole lot of trouble behind.
As danger closes in, Early, her mom, and her brother have to flee their apartment. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to move into a city shelter. Once there, Early starts asking questions and looking for answers. Because her father hasn't disappeared without a trace. There are patterns and rhythms to what's happened, and Early might be the only one who can use them to track him down and make her way out of a very tough place.
With her signature, singular love of language and sense of mystery, Blue Balliett weaves a story that takes readers from the cold, snowy Chicago streets to the darkest corner of the public library, on an unforgettable hunt for deep truths and a reunited family.
Author Notes
Blue Balliett was born in New York City in 1955. She received a degree in art history from Brown University. After graduating, she moved to Nantucket Island, Massachusetts and wrote two books of ghost stories. She eventually moved to Chicago and taught third grade at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Her first children's book, Chasing Vermeer, won the 2005 Edgar Award in the Best Juvenile category. Her other works include The Wright 3 (2006), The Calder Game (2008), and The Danger Box (2010).
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Eleven-year-old Early loves her family: her father, Dashiell (called Dash), who works at a library and enjoys wordplay of all kinds; her mother, Summer (called Sum); and her little brother, Jubilation (called Jubie). Together they call their family "DashSumEarlyJubie," delighting in how their names "click" together like magnets, the family members fitting together perfectly in a happy unit. But after doing some off-hours work cataloging books at home, Dash mysteriously disappears, criminals threaten the family and tear apart their apartment, and Early and her mother and brother end up out of money and trying to survive in the city's shelter system. It's up to Early to solve the mystery of what happened to her father and reunite the family. Balliett's novel is perfect for audio: Dash's talks with his family are full of alliteration and rhymes, and he often quotes the poems of Langston Hughes, which later give Early clues to solving the mystery. Narrator Bahni Turpin's superb reading brings out all the musicality and rhythm of the text, and she creates authentic, distinctive voices for a multitude of characters of varying ages and accents. Ages 8-12. A Scholastic hardcover. A Doubleday hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
When her library worker father doesn't come home from work one day, Early and her mother and baby brother are left to the Chicago shelter system--and to solve the mystery of dad's disappearance. It's an adequate mystery, but too-frequent verbal flourishes and platitudes ("Early learned from her dad that a dictionary is a powerful and underestimated kind of book") are distracting. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In a one-room apartment on Chicago's South Side lives the Pearl family: Dash, Summer, 11-year-old Early, and little Jubie. Do they have a lot? Well, yes, they have Dash's love of words, their devotion to each other, and their dream: to have a home. Trying to help that dream along, Dash, a page at the Chicago Public Library, makes extra money inventorying a private collection of old books. One ice-cold day, Dash disappears, and the family must move to a shelter after an odd robbery sees their possessions stolen and their apartment destroyed. The story has some problems, especially when it comes to the mystery. The perpetrators are cartoonish, and Early's decision to be home schooled just when she needs to be free to find clues is awfully convenient. On another front, the national attention for a homeless program Early's devised might have fit better in a sequel. But what's wonderful about this book, overshadowing the plot flaws, is the way Balliett so thoroughly gets inside the mind of a child accustomed to love and protection and who now sees her life slipping away. Sadness and stoicism mingle freely in ways that will pierce all readers. Early is a clever heroine, and her smarts are enhanced by the poetry of Langston Hughes, which ripples beautifully through the story and infuses it with hope. One to ponder, this has a beat all its own. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new book by Blue Balliett, author of Chasing Vermeer (2004), is always an awaited event, and this title will be no exception.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Langsten Hughes's poem "Dreams" inspired the title of Blue Balliett's "Hold Fast," which opens with clear signals of the distress to come - and of the effort people require to stay hopeful through hardship. Before the novel even begins, Balliett offers dictionary definitions of the words "home," "lost" and "time," as well as a brief, sobering statement about the thousands of homeless children in Chicago. She also describes a 2003 diamond heist, at the time the biggest in history, in which the thieves were caught but the gems never found. All these elements play a part in the story that lies ahead. In Balliett's previous books, young characters are drawn into intricate mysteries involving valuable objects - from a stolen Vermeer and Charles Darwin's Galápagos notebook to an Alexander Calder sculpture and a Frank Lloyd Wright house. In this, her latest and most heart-rending novel, a vulnerable family is at the heart of the mystery, with a mother, father, daughter and son at stake and almost irrevocably harmed. "Hold Fast" opens with a mystifying incident. In a South Side neighborhood, in the middle of "the bitterest, meanest, darkest, coldest winter in anyone's memory," a man is hit by a truck and vanishes. When the police arrive on the scene, they find only a battered bicycle, a small notebook and strewn groceries. The bewildering disappearance of Dashel Pearl haunts the rest of the book as Balliett shifts backward in time to introduce the most devoted of young families, and then forward to show the present travails of Dashel's wife, Summer, and their two children. As in her previous books, Balliett makes the reader feel some of her characters' confusion as they try to solve dangerous puzzles. The central question - "But when is Dash coming home?" - hangs over everything. Words, stories and intriguing patterns once gave the Pearl family joy and comfort in their modest one-room apartment. Now, the three remaining Pearls - Summer, 11-year-old Early and 4-year-old Jubilation (a k a Jubie) - hold on fiercely to an old, out-of-print Langsten Hughes collection after their home is ransacked by a gang of masked thugs. Other than Dash's notebook and some clothes, Hughes's "First Book of Rhythms" is the only family possession the thugs left intact. It's a treasured physical reminder of Dash, a librarian and aspiring writer, and when the remaining threesome is forced to leave their apartment and neighborhood for safety's sake, they carry the book with them. A former educator (she taught third and fourth grade at Chicago's Lab School before her first novel, "Chasing Vermeer," was published), Balliett incorporated an abundance of facts and provocative questions about Vermeer, Wright, Calder and Darwin into her previous books. In "Hold Fast," a crucial subject is poetry, and a multitude of words are defined and pondered, with each chapter repeating a certain word - "click," "clutch," "crash" - in an almost incantatory rhythm. But the main lessons here are revealed in the moving depictions of the social safety net and life in a homeless shelter. Through Early's eyes, Balliett reveals the family's often grim experience. The police are mostly dismissive, Dash's library supervisors aren't helpful, new schoolmates can be cruel, and the shelter is an uneasy refuge. "Never walk away from anything around here," one veteran advises, "unless you got eyes in the back of your head." DAYS pass and as her father fails to show, Early notices her mother's inability to cope. Separated from her beloved Dash, Summer admits to her daughter that she "can't see a way out of this." Early seems to hear her father urging her to figure out what's gone wrong with their world. She dives into detective mode, tracks down Dash's high school mentor, then interrogates Dash's old supervisor and colleagues. Balliett makes these actions perfectly believable - like her father, Early asks questions, gets in over her head and makes unorthodox connections. The story's criminals and conspiracies around diamond smuggling and old books are never quite as compelling as its 11-year-old sleuth. The villains seem more odd than dangerous, and their nefarious operation comes across as needlessly complicated. But the multifaceted Early Pearl, ever observant and always pondering, shines as bright as any diamond. Abby McGanney Nolan reviews children's books for Booklist and The Washington Post.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Eleven-year-old Early Pearl, her little brother, Jubilation, and her mom are stunned when father Dash disappears one day on his way home from work as a page at the Chicago Public Library. When their apartment is broken into, most of their belongings are stolen and the family is threatened. They find themselves in an unexpected situation-living in a shelter. The loving circle of four is reduced to a nervous, uncertain, unmoored, and frightened trio struggling to hold on in an alien environment. As Early plays detective to try to figure out what might have happened to her beloved dad; she discovers that he held an extra job that involved taking inventory of a mysterious collection of books and thinks this position could play a central role in his disappearance. Early's mom starts to unravel, Jubie acts his age, and Early is far wiser than most tweens. While there are some flaws here-Early is too mature for her age, her dad is very naive, etc.-the story and characters are compelling. Bahni Turnpin narrates Balliett's story (Scholastic, 2013) in a warm, expressive voice, and her pacing and intonation are perfection. Her recitation of the Langston Hughes poetry that is incorporated throughout the novel is excellent.-B. Allison Gray, Goleta Library, CA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Eleven-year-old Early Pearl holds fast to her family's dream of a home of their own even after her father disappears, their apartment is ransacked, and she and her brother and mother are forced to move to a shelter. Taking her title from a Langston Hughes poem, the author of Chasing Vermeer (2004) weaves a moving story of homelessness, family, and the love of words and books. This mystery opens promisingly with a wintertime bike accident, a man's disappearance and a series of numerical coincidences. A warm family circle of four is broken; there's a violent burglary; the three remaining flee to Helping Hand. Early and her 4-year-old brother, Jubilation, play at being spies, but the fifth grader does real detective work, researching in the Chicago Public Library, where her father worked, and enlisting the help of some sympathetic adults. Gradually she, and readers, come to realize that her dad has been caught up in an international crime operation and that all of them are in danger. Early's family reads; her father is such an admirer of Langston Hughes that the poet's The First Book of Rhythms is a family treasure and plays a vital role in the solution of this intricate tale. Chapters are identified by word definitions (possible clues) and line patterns reminiscent of those in Hughes' book. Enthralling and satisfying. (Mystery. 9-13) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
