In the old days, otherwise known as the late 1970s, children's books tended to concern escape. At least the ones that interested me did. My favorite kids' book, FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg, was about a girl (accompanied by her brother) who ran away from home and lived for awhile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She left home because she felt mistreated by her family, but to me and to any other kid reading the book, why she left wasn't important. The point was she got out; she was in the real world making her own rules. All the books I enjoyed were like that: kids doing things without their parents. JAKARTA MISSING is a different kind of children's book. It's about a girl whose family runs away: a subtle twist and perhaps a modern one.

The story begins with our heroine, Dakar, on an extended stay in North Dakota. She has recently moved there from Africa and her big sister Jakarta hasn't arrived yet. Her parents are explorer types: mavericks who bore easily, condescend readily and are intent on saving the world. Dakar's mom wants to give up the rambling life and make America home, but Dakar's dad wants to go back to Africa for more adventure. Dakar is stuck in a strange land with strange cheese products. She's willing to make the best of it, but she wants her sister Jakarta with her. 

For the most part, Dakar is a willowy presence, constantly bending to the whims of her sister and parents. Her loyalty to her family is fierce, because for her, loyalty is required just to survive. Her parents' lifestyle has meant near constant turmoil for her and Jakarta, and she has come to depend on her sister as a stabilizing influence. As in my favorite children’s books, Dakar often lives apart from her parents, but what makes this book different is that Dakar isn’t terribly happy about it.
   
More than anything else, JAKARTA MISSING is a story about dislocation. Most everyone in the story spends a lot of time pining for Africa, which serves as a metaphorical and actual promised land. In opposition to the warmth Dakar sees there, she notices only the barren strangeness of North Dakota. But as the story progresses Dakar's outlook becomes more realistic. Africa was more than fruit trees and colonialist mansions; Africa also meant familial disharmony and deep sadness.  Dakar begins to see North Dakota as a way to escape that.

In the end neither Africa nor North Dakota proves to be the promised land. The family's weaknesses and strengths are transported wherever they live. Dakar never gets the perfect family she wants, but she does gain freedom from the burden of holding her imperfect clan together: a bittersweet prize, but a realistic one. Dakar's parents are more swashbuckling than most, but the dynamics in their family will be familiar to many. The kids in FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER ran from mean parents, but why run from parents who won't miss you? JAKARTA MISSING is about hoping for less freedom just as FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER was about hoping for more.

   --- Reviewed by Fred Kovey