Where Things Come Back

Title: Where Things Come Back

Author: John Corey Whaley
 

Publisher: Atheneum Books (2011)

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction

Length:  228 pages

Synopsis: Cullen Witter lives in Lily, Arkansas, a small town where nothing ever happens.  The highlights of his high school career include mooning over the beautiful girl of his dreams and spending time with his oddly enigmatic younger brother, Gabriel.  Until, of course, the summer the supposedly extinct Lazarus Woodpecker reappears.  Across the globe, Benton, a young missionary sets out for Africa, hoping to make a difference and earn his family's respect.  As these two stories unwind, they spiral closer together until inextricably linked.  Tiny actions lead to unimaginable consequences, and an even more tenuous force, hope, proves to be the strongest of all.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  This was an unexpectedly delightful book.  I'm not sure why the delight was unexpected, as this is a Printz award winner, but it took a few pages to get into, particularly when the story began shifting between Arkansas and Africa.  The slow drawing together of these disparate plot lines was elegant.  The voices of the characters were almost achingly compelling, with moments of bright humor and happiness alternating with grim disappointment and loss.  This is not a plot driven book; as in Lily, Arkansas, not much happens.  This is not a flaw, but I imagine that despite the critical acclaim, some young readers will find this book requires a major adjustment from the typical high-octane plots of other YA fiction.  But for readers willing to put a little extra thought into the stories that unfold in this book, they'll find a poignant commentary on the world around us, a transient world wherein the actions of one person can have lasting effects on others, and where what we give to the world almost always comes back to us, in one form or another.