Middle of Nowhere - by Caroline Adderson (Paperback)

About the Book

At first Curtis isn't worried when his mother doesn't come home after her all-night shift at the gas bar. For a time he manages on his own, looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, but then the credit card maxes out, and the landlord starts demanding the rent. Just in time the boys make friends with cranky old Mrs. Burt who lives across the street. When the authorities start poking around, the boys agree to accompany Mrs. Burt to her remote cabin by a lake, but as summer turns to fall, and Mrs. Burt seems to be prepared to spend winter in the cabin, Curtis begins to worry.

Book Synopsis

A middle-grade novel about two maybe-orphans and their unlikely friendship with a cranky old neighbor. At first Curtis isn't that worried when his mother doesn't come home from her all-night job at the local gas station. She'll be back, he's ten out of ten positive. Besides, Curtis is used to looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, Artie. But when the landlord starts pressuring them for the rent and the authorities start to investigate, it's more than a 12-year-old can handle. Just in time, Mrs. Burt, the cranky, lonely old lady who lives across the street, offers to take Curtis and Artie to her lakeside cabin for the summer. As summer sails by and the weather grows colder, Mrs. Burt seems to be preparing to spend the winter at the cabin, and Curtis starts to worry. Have they really all just absconded to the lake for a summer holiday? Or have the two boys been kidnapped?

Review Quotes

"Caroline Adderson is that rare bird: a writer who brings to the middle-grade novel the artistry and respect it deserves . . .To write them requires a particular skill set, one that Adderson exhibits in spades." -- Quill & Quire, starred review

About the Author

Caroline Adderson is the author of several award-winning books. Her works of adult fiction have been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She is a three-time CBC Literary Award winner, two-time winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and recipient of the 2006 Marian Engel Award for her body of work. Her children's books include I, Bruno, nominated for the Chocolate Lily and Shining Willow book awards, Very Serious Children, winner of the Diamond Willow Award and shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award, and Jasper John Dooley. She is also the author of the picture book Norman, Speak!, forthcoming, which won the Helen Isobel Sissons Canadian Children's Story Award. She lives in Vancouver.