Mo Wren, Lost and Found

by Tricia Springstubb, Heather Ross (Illustrator)

Overview

This is the story of what happened after Fox Street.

Mo Wren knew that eventually she, her dad, and her sister, Wild Child Dottie, would have to move from beloved Fox Street. She just never expected it to happen so soon.

At the Wrens’ new place, things are very different. The name of the street—East 213th—has absolutely zero magic. And there’s no Mrs. Petrone to cut her hair, no Pi Baggott to teach her how to skateboard, no Green Kingdom to explore. She’s having trouble fitting in at her new school and spending a lot of time using the corner bus shelter for her Thinking Spot. Worst of all, Mo discovers that the ramshackle restaurant Mr. Wren bought is cursed. Only Dottie, with her new friends and pet lizard, Handsome, is doing the dance of joy.

For the first time in her life, Mo feels lost and out of place. It’s going to take a boy who tells whoppers, a Laundromat with a mysterious owner, a freak blizzard, and some courage to help her find her way home for good.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062093387
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/23/2011
Series:	Fox Street , #2
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Lexile:	640L (what's this?)
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Tricia Springstubb is the author of the acclaimed middle grade novels What Happened on Fox Street and Mo Wren, Lost and Found as well as the picture book Phoebe & Digger. The mother of three grown daughters, she lives with her husband and cats in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. You can visit her online at www.triciaspringstubb.com.

Heather Ross is an illustrator, author, and textile designer. She is the illustrator of How to Behave at a Tea Party by Madelyn Rosenberg, as well as the Crafty Chloe books by Kelly DiPucchio. She also wrote the bestselling craft books Weekend Sewing and Heather Ross Prints. Heather's own dog, Lobo, currently holds a regional title for Smelliest Pup. She lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3–6—Mo liked her life just the way it was when she lived on Fox Street. However, when her mom dies, everything seems to change. Her dad sells their house and moves the family to a new neighborhood where everything is different. Fox Street had everything: a player piano, the best burrito maker in the city, and, most of all, memories of her mother. In this sequel to What Happened on Fox Street (Harper Collins, 2010), Mo's new home is an apartment over an old restaurant that Mo is certain has a curse on it. She doesn't fit in at her new school and misses her friend Mercedes. The girls keep in touch mostly by phone, but Mercedes has problems of her own. Mo wonders if she will ever feel as if she really belongs on E. 213th Street, but she eventually makes some new friends and gains a new outlook on just what "home" really means. Readers will laugh and cry with Mo and will want to find a friend just like her.—Tammy DiBartolo, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA

School Library Journal

Praise for WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET Autumn 2010 Kids’ Indie Next List Kirkus Best Books for Children, 2010 *” Mo’s voice is original, though it has tinctures of Scout and Harriet. What happened on Fox Street? Love, belief and caring.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Praise for WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET *” Mo is a character readers will root for, as her imagination, stubbornness, dislike of surprises, and curiously fierce caution in crossing the street make her seem as intensely real to the reader as her fox is to Mo.” — Horn Book (starred review)

From the Publisher

Praise for WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET *” Mo is a character readers will root for, as her imagination, stubbornness, dislike of surprises, and curiously fierce caution in crossing the street make her seem as intensely real to the reader as her fox is to Mo.

Horn Book (starred review)

Praise for WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET*” Mo is a character readers will root for, as her imagination, stubbornness, dislike of surprises, and curiously fierce caution in crossing the street make her seem as intensely real to the reader as her fox is to Mo.

Horn Book

Mo Wren can't imagine living anywhere but Fox Street—until her father buys a rundown restaurant on East 213th Street. Newly named The WrenHouse, it lacks the tightly knit community that she loves, needs a total revamping and supposedly is cursed!

This sequel toWhat Happened on Fox Street(2010) reintroduces the likable characters from the first book: Mo's "wild child" sister, Dottie; her unhandy father; and elderly neighbors that she misses terribly. But new ones emerge to fill her emotional cracks:Shawn, a hyperkinetic classmate, and Carmella, owner of the Soap Opera Laundromat and nurturer of the neighborhood. When the restoration of the restaurant goes awry, Mo begins to think it is cursed, especially on the night of the opening, when a freak blizzard hits. Plot details are often foreseeable and convenient but nevertheless believable; readers won't be surprised that Dottie's pet lizard gets loose and can't be found or that the homeless handyman helps with the makeover, but these elements fit right in cozily. The correlation between the Laundromat's lost and found (providing a needed article at the right time) and Mo's feelings are subtle but nicely tied together (a yellow sweater reminds Mo of her dead mother).

Taken all together, the spunk of the primary characters, the dialogue and the "home-is-where-you-make-it" underlying message serve up a plateful of enjoyable story. And there's room for thirds. (Sketches not seen.)(Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews