Spring Reading 2018 Bob by Wendy Mass & Rebecca Stead

I know that fans of Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead will want this book as soon as they see those names on the cover. For those who are not fans yet (and they will be), let me tell you about this story. Livy is visiting her grandmother in Australia. She hasn't been there to the family farm since she was five, and she doesn't remember that trip. But her mother has brought Livy and her baby sister Beth Ann to visit Gran and all of Mom's friends. When she goes up to see her bedroom, Livy discovers Bob. Who and what is Bob? Good question. He is the friend that has been waiting in Livy's closet for her return - over 5 years! Bob believes he is a zombie, because that is what Livy called him when she found him during her last visit. But is he? Or is he something else, maybe an invisible friend?

As Livy and Bob become reacquainted (Bob knows that word because he had a dictionary in the closet and he taught himself to read), they each find out what the other has been doing while they were apart. They also try to piece together what Bob is and where he came from. In the background of their story, readers see the bigger landscape of farmland suffering from drought and a town slowly fading away. Even if Livy can help Bob find his way home, who will save Gran's farm and those of the neighbors?

Warm, touching, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and very easy to lose oneself in...this is a story that will probably grace bookshelves next to The Tale of Despereaux and Charlotte's Web. 

I read an ebook provided by the publisher through NetGalley.