If You Find This by Matthew Baker (Hot Key Books)
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9781471404528
Reviewed by Dianne Bates
As soon as you read in the
first page of this first person narrative that the protagonist eleven-year-old
Nicholas Funes has an ongoing relationship with a tree that he believes is his
brother, you know this is going to be quirky, and Nicholas weird. The
boy also collects prime numbers and square roots and the text is full of
references to them. There is also something which irritated this reader: the
words ‘forte’ and ‘piano’ are littered throughout the book to indicate mood. I
found them distracting and could not see what purpose they served.
As for the story, Nicholas’
real troubles begin when his Grandfather, a family secret, is let out of
prison. The old man confides he has a map to an immense fortune; the problem is
that it seems as though he’s suffering from dementia. Fighting off bullies is
one of Nicholas’ problems and, too, he’s upset that the family is going to have
to sell off their home to solve monetary problems.
What follows next is a
series of events that see Nicholas, with two unlikely accomplices, trying to
engineer a break-out from a retirement home, making an agreement with a local
witch and trying to solve the secrets of his family’s past.
Nicholas is a weird child indeed. I
found this story challenging, trying to ignore the fortes and pianos and other
oddities. But for a reader aged 11 years and up who enjoys books about strange
friendships, weirdness, family secrets and dangerous adventures, then this might be a
book for him or her.
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