THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ZOE FLYNN
by Janet Lee Carey
Atheneum
ISBN: 0689856040
Ages 8-12
240 pages

Zoe's house at 18 Hawk Road, Tillerman, California, isn't perfect, but it's the imperfections that make it home. When her father announces that he has lost his job, the Flynn family is forced to leave their house, move to Oregon, and live in their van while her father looks for work.

Zoe adapts to the family's new routine and starts school, but she still can't get over her memories of her house in Tillerman. She comes up with a scheme involving a disturbing amount of fast food to win enough money to buy her family a new house, but this is unsuccessful. Unable to accept her new "home" in Oregon, she scrapes together money for a bus ticket and rides back to her hometown. By this time, a new family has moved into her old house, and she sees that her life in Tillerman is over for good.

Unfortunately, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ZOE FLYNN is full of stilted dialogue, stereotypical characters, and a main character with unnerving immaturity. Rather than learn to accept her new situation, Zoe clings to memories and goes to extreme lengths to deny her family's homelessness.

While it is not unusual for a character, especially a sixth grader, to want to hide family secrets, Janet Lee Carey's execution is poor and her style unappealing. Zoe's trip to Tillerman is unrealistic and predictably filled with overwrought drama. (Her house catches fire and she calls 911, ultimately saving the majority of the house.) The fantastical element of Zoe's "dreamroom," a closet with a glass doorknob in which she writes and draws, is better suited to a novel for younger readers.

   --- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

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