The Warden’s Daughter by Jerry Spinelli - ADVISABLE

Spinelli, Jerry The Warden’s Daughter, 341 pgs. Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.  $16.99.  

Language: PG (4 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG (talk of developing breasts); Violence: PG.

Cammie O’Reilly, commonly known as Cannonball because she blasts herself into whatever she does, lives with her father in an apartment above the county jail.  It is just the two of them because when Cammie was a baby, her mother got run down by a milk truck but managed to push the stroller with Cammie in to safety first.  Cammie has largely been okay with just her dad, but she has decided that she really needs a mother.  In order to fill that longing, she begins looking among the inmates of the jail. 

This book is beautifully written.  Through Cammie we come to realize that not all prisons are made of metal.  The time frame is set in the 50’s, so it may be a little harder for kids to relate to unless they Google American Bandstand.  This book is more of a leisurely stroll than a race against time.  That stroll, though, shows how buildings and people evolve and that what we want may not be what we need.

EL, MS - ADVISABLE.  Michelle in the Middle