GEWIRTZ, Adina Rishe. Zebra Forest. 200p. Candlewick. 2013. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-6041-3; ebook $15.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-6568-5. LC 2012947251.
Gr 5-8–It’s almost summer and 11-year-old Annie Morgan has a small list of things she hopes to accomplish during her vacation: grow tall, have an adventure, and meet her father. Sadly, the last wish is impossible given her father’s death in a brutal fight many years before. Annie and her younger brother, Rew, live with their caring, but mentally unstable, grandmother in the backwoods of Sunshine. The siblings pass the time in the “Zebra Forest” of birches and oaks behind their house, weaving elaborate fantasies of their dad as a pirate or secret agent. When a prison escapee barges into their house and holds them hostage, the siblings are shocked to discover that the interloper is their presumed-dead father, Andrew Snow. Gran’s fragile state renders her incapable of helping the children process this revelation. Rew lashes out against his captor, refusing to believe that this man is his dad. Annie is torn between siding with her brother and her desire to know their father. Gewirtz veers away from melodrama, deftly capturing nuances of family dynamics in spare prose. Another notable element is the thematic parallel with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which the children read throughout the story. Despite Zebra Forest’s slow start, audiences will appreciate this novel’s multilayered characters and touching message of hope and forgiveness.–Lalitha Nataraj, Escondido Public Library, CA
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