Sandra Kring, Thank You for All Things

Thank You for All Things

Sandra Kring

Bantam, Sep 30 2008, $12.00

ISBN: 9780385341202

Eleven years old twins Lucy and Milo McGowan are both brilliant with IQs off the charts. They live with their single mom in Chicago, but whereas Lucy is curious about people, Milo is indifferent. Her inquisitiveness, some might say nosiness, has led her to declare that she will be a psychologist and a dying need to know about her unknown father, paternal grandfather and anything involving her heritage; Milo couldn't care less about the family tree.

When her mom learns that her father is dying, she and her two kids travel to her hometown of Timber Falls, Wisconsin. Lucy quickly realizes her mom loathes her father and came only to help her mother. Meanwhile Lucy begins to investigate her family; especially the estrangement between her angry grandfather and her relationship phobic mother. She even begins to love the crusty grump although as she learns more about the abuse of the past she finds it hard to care about him.

This superb family drama hooks the audience from the moment mom and the twins go to Wisconsin. Lucy with her conclusions and eye opening revelations makes the tale work. Readers will enjoy this fine intelligent contemporary as Sandra Kring digs deep into the wider impact on others of the estrangement between a daughter and her father mostly through the eyes of the granddaughter.

Harriet Klausner