Zebra Forest

by Adina Rishe Gewirtz

Overview

“An emotionally honest family story with an ending that’s hopeful without being implausibly upbeat.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In an extraordinary debut novel, an escaped fugitive upends everything two siblings think they know about their family, their past, and themselves. Driven by suspense and psychological intrigue, Zebra Forest deftly portrays an unfolding standoff of truth against family secrets — and offers an affecting look at two resourceful, imaginative kids as they react and adapt to the hand they’ve been dealt.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763671662
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/09/2014
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	507,632
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Adina Rishe Gewirtz has worked as a freelance journalist, a high-school tutor, and a business-writing consultant. The author of How to Say It: Business Writing That Works, Adina Gewirtz now coaches writers and spends most of her time focused on her first love, fiction writing. Zebra Forest is her first novel. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

We called it the Zebra Forest because it looked like a zebra. Its trees were a mix of white birch and chocolate oak, and if you stood a little ways from it, like at our house looking across the back field that was our yard, you saw stripes, black and white, that went up into green. Gran never went out there except near dusk, when the shadows gathered. She didn’t like to be out in full sunlight usually, and told me once she didn’t like the lines the trees made. Gran was always saying stuff like that. Perfectly beautiful things — like a clean blue sky over the Zebra — made tears come to her eyes, and if I tried to get her to come outside with me, she’d duck her head and hurry upstairs to bed. But then it would be storming, lightning sizzling the tops of the trees, and she’d run round the house, cheerful, making us hot cocoa and frying up pancakes and warming us with old quilts. We had few rules in our house, but keeping out of the Zebra Forest in a storm was one of them.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Zebra Forest"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Adina Rishe Gewirtz.
Excerpted by permission of Candlewick Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Gewirtz veers away from melodrama, deftly capturing nuances of family dynamics in spare prose. ... [A]udiences will appreciate this novel’s multilayered characters and touching message of hope and forgiveness.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Debut author Gewirtz successfully conveys the terror and tedium of being trapped...An emotionally honest family story with an ending that’s hopeful without being implausibly upbeat.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Gewirtz’s emotionally intense debut novel about the complications of families offers a perceptive heroine and poetic, impressive prose.
—Kirkus Reviews

The tight narrative—laden with symbolism, such as a copy of Treasure Island missing half of its pages, a backdrop of the Iran hostage crisis, and the forest itself—is held together with the strength of the characters. This slight, tense debut novel will interest children looking for suspense or family drama.
—Booklist

[T]he absorbing voice and short chapters make this a taut, accessible read (and older readaloud), and kids will be engrossed by Annie’s dilemma.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

With well-crafted characters and an engaging plot that doesn’t plod, Zebra Forest nails the basics. It’s a family mystery that slowly unwinds, with doses of suspense and intensity. ... A skillfully crafted debut novel from an author to watch.
—100 Scope Notes (SLJ Blog)

Clever plot twists, lyrical writing and empathetic characters make this book a must-not-miss.
—Georgia Times-Union

From the Publisher

Annie and her brother, Andrew (“Rew”), live a quiet life in the shelter of the Zebra Forest, an expanse of birch surrounding their Gran’s mean house. Their mother left Annie and Rew with Gran because they were “his idea,” and their father is presumed dead—a heroic figure in Annie’s imagination. Was he a pilot? A pirate? Or a special agent like the negotiators working to free the Americans in Iran, now almost a year in captivity? Then a prison break brings a desperate fugitive to their door, and Annie, Rew, and Gran begin living their own hostage crisis. This compelling debut bares the stark truth about four vulnerable people and at the same time offers them a more hopeful future. An unforgettable story of the ties that bind.

(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal

Something is dreadfully wrong when Annie B.’s presumed dead father shows up at the back door following a local prison break. Gerwitz’s novel poses hard questions for a family trying to cope. Long after its final chapter, listeners will ponder the choices made and their repercussions. Did Andrew Stone’s return help or harm his children? Was Gran wise in isolating her grandchildren? How can an 11-year-old pull a family together? Narrator Kate Reinders sets a pace in keeping with the quickly developing story. She brings a youthful voice to her rendition of Annie B., trailing off when deep in thought, bristling with contempt as she criticizes her father, and shouting with raw intensity when coping skills are hard to come by. As Gran, Reinders is prickly, and as young Rew, she’s explosive. A.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2013 - AudioFile