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Trowbridge Road

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By Marcella Pixley
Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2020.

It is the summer of 1983 and June Bug Jordan watches Ziggy Karlo arrive at his grandmother's house. June Bug is filled with longing for a friend, an adult to love and care for her, and for something to eat. After June Bug's father died from AIDS, her mother slipped into depression and intense germaphobia and now she refuses to leave the house or cook any food and obsessively cleans everything with bleach. When Ziggy, also lonely and feeling abandoned by his mother, notices June Bug watching him, the two escape to their own imaginary, magical world called "the ninth dimension" where they are able to be in charge of their own lives for a change.

This is a heartrending story about two outcast children struggling to find a loving place to belong. This book is reminiscent of Katherine Paterson's BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA and deals with really difficult topics in an open and honest way. June Bug and Ziggy are lovable children who don't fit in with the kids on their idyllic block and painfully learn what it is like to be abandoned by parents, luckily Ziggy's grandma Nana Jean and June Bug's uncle Toby are caring adults yearning to step in and love the children. This is an emotional book appropriate for mature young readers ready to handle the subject matter.
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Test said…
This was so sad! Thank you for the review.
January 7, 2021 at 11:16 AM
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