15 Days Without a Head

Gr 5–8—Laurence Roach is convinced that the solution to all of his problems lies with winning a luxury holiday getaway for his family from local radio show Baz's Bedtime Bonanza. What else is going to make Mum happy enough to stop drinking? Being 15, he can't win it outright, so he's been using his deceased dad's name. Night after night, Laurence is getting the trivia right and advancing through the game when all of a sudden his mother doesn't come home from work. It's up to Laurence to take care of himself and his little brother, figure out where Mum went, avoid nosy neighbors who will probably report them to child services, and keep coming up with the right answers for Baz's trivia questions. The story is attention-grabbing and heartstring-tugging, offering a truncated but important view into the life of a struggling family. However, the Roaches' story comes to a happy and tidy ending, following a very undramatic explanation of Mum's absence. An emotional read with too little payoff.—Emily Moore, Camden County Library System, NJ