by Blue Balliet
ages: 9+
First sentence: “It was the bitterest, meanest, darkest, coldest winter in anyone’s memory, even in one of the forgotten neighborhoods of Chicago.”
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Early Pearl is happy living in her small inner-city Chicago apartment with her family. They don’t have much — her parents barely finished high school before Early was born, though her dad scrapes a living by as a page for the Chicago Library — but they have each other, and the words that her dad, Dash, loves so much.

Then one fateful January day, Dash disappears. Early’s mother, Summer, is devastated, and goes to the police, but since this is inner city Chicago, everyone just assumes he couldn’t handle it and has run off.  Summer is insistent that he hasn’t, and  her worst fears are confirmed when some masked men break into their apartment, stealing everything they have, rendering Early, her mother, and her younger brother Jubilation (Jubie for short) homeless.

Early’s on her mother’s side: her father didn’t just run off. Something happened to him. And because her mother is having a difficult time dealing with the homeless shelter (and to be fair: she’s depressed), it’s up to Early to find the clues and figure out what has happened to Dash.

There was much to love about this book. From the onomatopoeia in the chapter titles (and themes) to the use of Langston Hughes’ poetry, to the exploration of the homeless plight in the cities. Early is a spunky character, one with determination and heart, and you can’t help but feel for the situation — however implausible — she’s put in. Balliet does an excellent job portraying not only the discrimination homeless people feel, but also the hopelessness in the shelters.

It wasn’t a perfect mystery: there were elements that kind of came out of nowhere, and it was more than a little implausible — even for a middle grade book — that an 11-year-old could figure things out the way she did. And while I enjoyed Early, I never felt like I was able to connect with the other characters the way I felt I should have.

That said, the picture Balliet paints of inner cities is a stirring one, especially for those out here in mid-America. And for that, this book is important, I think.