Picture Me Gone

Starred review from August 26, 2013
Twelve-year-old Mila has remarkable powers of observation, but even more impressive is her insight into people’s minds. This may be why her college-professor father takes her with him from London to America to track down his oldest friend, who has suddenly disappeared, leaving his wife and young son behind. The mission, which takes them through upstate New York, is more complicated than Mila expects, with clues not quite adding up and disturbing secrets unveiled, including the realization that her father hasn’t been entirely honest. Teeming with complex adult problems—infidelity, marital collapse, the death of a child—this thought-provoking coming-of-age story requires that readers be at least as mature as Mila as she confronts unpleasant truths. Yet Rosoff’s (There Is No Dog) writing isn’t all gloom and doom. Mila’s sharp observations of the people she meets and the winter landscape add a fresh, poetic aura to her discoveries and the novel as a whole. “The sun is shining, the sky impossible blue,” she thinks. “The world looks so dazzling, I almost can’t bear to look at it.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency.

Starred review from August 15, 2013
Mila, 12, a keen observer of people and events, accompanies her translator father, Gil, on a journey from London to upstate New York in search of Gil's lifelong friend, who's disappeared. Mila applies her puzzle-solving skills to the mystery of why Matthew would abandon his wife and baby, not to mention his dog. On a road trip to Matthew's cabin in the woods, she mulls over the possibilities while Gil keeps his thoughts to himself. Mila, who finds strength in her multinational pedigree and her ability to read people, is the one who eventually puts the pieces of the story together. Rosoff respects her young character, portraying her as a complete person capable of recognizing that there are things she may not yet know but aware that life is a sometimes-painful sequence of clues to be put together, leading to adulthood. The author skillfully turns to a variety of literary devices to convey this transition: the absence of quotation marks blurs the line between thoughts spoken and unspoken; past, present, and future merge in Mila's telling just as they do in the lives of the characters as truths come to light and Mila is able to translate Matthew's darkest secrets. A brilliant depiction of the complexity of human relationships in a story that's at once contemplative and suspenseful. (Fiction. 11 & up)

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Starred review from October 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-Rosoff is back with another young protagonist trying to navigate the confusing adult world. Mila, a middle schooler with a knack for tapping into others' secret thoughts, travels to New York state from London with her father. Their original plan had been to visit with Matt, the family friend who once saved her father's life, but he disappeared two days before their arrival, creating tension between Mila's father, Gil, and Matt's wife, Suzanne. Gil and Mila leave Suzanne and her young son behind as they search haphazardly around northern New York, looking for clues about Matt's whereabouts. Along the way, Mila exchanges several texts with him and wrestles with keeping them secret from her father. As more characters are introduced, Matt's reasons for leaving become even more clouded, and Mila's father is implicated as an accomplice in the disappearance. Mila must keep her wits about her to get to the bottom of this complicated scenario. With strong characters and a well-articulated plot, Picture Me Gone is a welcome addition to any collection. The author accurately captures this mature adolescent's view of adults without condescension or judgment, a feat worthy of praise. Complex issues are dealt with, and, true to the novel's trajectory, a tidy ending would have been out of place. Rosoff does not disappoint.-Colleen S. Banick, Westport Public Schools, CT

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2013
Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* Mila, 12, is something of a mentalist. She can read expressions, sense underlying emotions, and put human puzzles together. Even though her father's lifelong friend Matthew has gone missing, Gil and Mila carry on with their plan to fly from England to Matthew's home in upstate New York, only now, instead of a visit, the purpose of their trip is to find him. The story is presented as a mystery, and it is, but it is so much more. Rosoff, who writes each of her books differently (and often brilliantly), shapes this story as much by form and intuitions as by events. In making the choice not to use quotation marks for the dialogue, readers are immediately pushed inside Mila's head. Every conversation is filtered through her observations; even the way she can read Matthew's loyal dog, Honey, informs what she learns and understands about Matthew, including his motives and machinations. Wisely, Rosoff also provides a parallel subplot about Mila's own best friend that anchors Mila as a recognizable 12-year-old. Without that plot point, her multinational heritage and surprising gifts might make her hopelessly other. As readers move deeper into the story (literally deeper as Mila and Gil find themselves in snowbound rural settings), Matthew's situation becomes a surprising tunnel for Mila to learn more about her own father and what adults are capable of. There's no condescension or compromise to the obvious audience either in premise or prose. It's another choice, one that allows the book to offer its many insights on the human condition to a widespread readership.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2013
Londoner Mila, twelve, is an observant watcher and a solver of puzzles. Although still, technically speaking, a child, she considers herself more responsible than her absent-minded translator father, Gil, and claims a higher emotional intelligence than her cool-headed musician mother ( If someone is angry or sad or disappointed, I see it like a neon sign ). So when Gil flies to New York to search for his oldest friend, Matthew, who has inexplicably disappeared, Mila accompanies him. The road-trip novel setup (Matthew's wife sends them upstate to their camp in the Adirondacks, guessing he might be there) allows for much airing of Mila's thought processes; many revelations about Matthew's past, including the car accident in which his oldest son died; and the introduction of further, complicating, characters. Along the way Mila renews (via text) a broken friendship and begins her first maybe-a-romance with cute Jake, son of Matthew's former girlfriend. Mila also begins texting, secretly, with Matthew, proud of her detective skillsand then has her world rocked when Gil reveals that he has been in touch with a desperate Matthew all along. The novel's focus and central questionhow much tragedy and guilt can a person bear before he gives up on life?are thoroughly adult, and just a tad soap-operatic. But the writing is up to Rosoff's usual standards of originality and wit: of Matthew's wife, Mila says, She's not old but looks pinched, as if someone has forgotten to water her. martha v. parravano

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2014
Sensitive Londoner Mila, twelve, travels with her father, Gil, to upstate New York to search for Gil's boyhood friend, who has inexplicably disappeared. The subject of this road-trip novel--how much guilt and tragedy can a person bear before he gives up on life?--is adult, but the writing is up to Rosoff's usual standards of originality, depth, wit, and insight.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

June 1, 2014
Gr 8 Up-Mila and her father go on holiday to the States to visit his best friend, Matthew, only to discover that he has gone missing. Mila's exceptional gift of observation comes in handy, revealing as many mysteries as clues. Why aren't the adults more alarmed? Why didn't he take his devoted dog with him? How could a man leave his wife and baby, and why are a woman and her son living in the cabin where Mila and her father expected to find Matthew? Narrator Suzy Jackson does a splendid job conveying through tone and pace the reflective and often sad mood of this story. She delivers with perfection English, Scottish, and American accents. The adult themes and some crude language makes this novel more appropriate for slightly older tweens and teens. This story is less of a mystery and more of a coming-of-age tale, with some twists that keep the plot moving and demonstrate Mila's abilities to decode people and her surroundings in unusual ways.-"Terri Norstrom, Cook Memorial Public Library District, Libertyville, IL"

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.