Laura Tucker

Set in 1981 SoHo, this "dazzling debut novel about resilience, courage, home and family" (Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award-winning author of "When You Reach Me") follows 12-year-old Olympia as she searches for her missing father, an artist who brought antique painting back to life. Illustrations.

All the Greys on Greene Street

Izza

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Publication Date: June 4, 2019

Genre: MG Contemporary

Recommended Age: 13+ (depression, starvation, neglect, and some criminal activity)

Publisher: Viking

Pages: 320

Amazon Link

Synopsis: SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist—and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye.

Then everything falls apart. Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . .

Olympia knows her dad is the key--but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

Review: I thought this book was pretty cool. I loved the art mystery and the book is full of twist and turns. The characters are well developed and fun. The writing is spectacular. And I really loved how the author put a note in the back about mental illness and really broke it down and explained it to young readers. The author also provided phone numbers for the readers to call if needed.

However, I felt that the book was longer than it needed to be? Like it could have definitely ended earlier in my opinion. I felt that the pacing was a bit wonky, it was slow but fast then slow again. And overall I felt this book, while a cool art mystery, had some very concerning elements. The characters mother is suffering from depression and can't get out of bed. The father has run away to another country for a spoiler reason. The main characters teachers and adult friends do not realize the main character is wasting away (to quote "'you don't see the way she looks? Silent and starving, like something out of Dickens'... 'like a street urchin, totally neglected'"), the only character to do so is a random side character who's the mother of one of her friends. I don't know, I feel that this character was so neglected, which I bet was the intention of the book, but she should have been taken better care of. I feel angry that this child was neglected by basically everyone in the book and I feel that a teacher or that friends mother should have contacted child services to help the family and child. I feel that when the main character went to the hospital that if the main character was really wasting away as it was put in the book the doctors would have called social services. And at the end the book gives this sense of hope but from my experience and knowledge this child, if this was real, would have a lot of issues later in her life and would probably have some health issues from "silent and starving" as one adult put it in the book. I don't know, it just felt like the main character was secondary in her own book and I fear it might send a message that they're not worthy of receiving help if young readers don't read the back of the book.

Verdict: a really cool art mystery but maybe some adult guidance on the tougher subjects.

All the Greys on Greene Street

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