ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Heider, Mary Winn

The Losers at the Center of the Galaxy

304 pp. | Little | March, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-7595-5542-6 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-7595-5541-9 $9.99
(2) 4-6 Two years ago, Winston and Louise Volpe's father Lenny--beloved former quarterback for the Chicago Horribles--walked away and disappeared, a hero "lost in time and space, done in by his own broken mind." Now the siblings and their mother ("the incomplete Volpe family") are dealing with his absence in their own ways. At their middle school, Louise has thrown herself into discovering a cure for brain damage in Science Club, Winston into playing tuba for the band. But then...what is behind the mysterious behavior of a group of Winston's teachers? Is a ghost haunting the Chicago Horribles' locker room? Can Louise find a way to free the Horribles' live-bear mascot? Madcap antics ensue, but this is still, at its heart, a story of grief over the loss of a father and husband from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy); as such, the novel would make a good companion to Jacqueline Woodson's Before the Ever After (rev. 9/20). Heider deftly balances screwball action and humor with poignancy and even profundity, and offers a hopeful conclusion--in which Winston finds his own "center of the galaxy" with a fellow tuba player, Louise finds an achievable science project, and all the Volpe family members find support in one another.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

RELATED 

INTERMEDIATE FICTION

The Republic of Birds
by Miller, Jessica
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Atlantis
by Mone, Gregory
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

It Doesn't Take a Genius
by Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
by Rivera, Kaela
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Soul Lanterns
by Kuzki, Shaw
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?