The Half-True Lies of Cricket Cohen

Gr 4–6—Cricket Cohen is intense, precocious, and passionate about geology; she also frequently embroiders the truth in order to make it more interesting. Cricket, who readers may recognize as Veronica Morgan's classmate from Burns's earlier novel, The Good, the Bad, and the Beagle, is basically an 11-year-old version of Kay Thompson's Eloise. Her beloved grandmother, Dodo Fabricant, shares her love of drama and make-believe, and when the two of them embark on a spur-of-the-moment adventure through Manhattan, it becomes clear that Dodo has health issues with which no one in the family has come to terms. The tone is uneven, with the narration swerving among expository descriptions of rock formations, Cricket's fantasy world, and an emotional climax. The plot generally gallops along but gets bogged down at times with some of the informational sections. Cricket and her grandmother are engaging, believable (but not always likable) characters, and the settings, including Central Park, Barney's, and the police precinct, are vividly portrayed. Dementia is explored sensitively and appropriately for this age group, although the connection the author is drawing with geology seems tenuous. The geology sections were reviewed by a professor in this field.