Review of SandPeople

[SangeethaNarayan]

[Following is a volunteer review of "SandPeople" by Cheryl Kerr.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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SandPeople, written by Cheryl Kerr, is an across-time mystery novel written for young adults. The protagonist, Lea McKinney, is a twelve-year-old girl who is faced with accepting her parents’ separation. Lea was informed that her dad and her younger brother, TJ, were planning to leave for her grandpa’s house. On the other hand, her mom would drop her off at her aunt’s place in Texas.

Overnight, her life seemed to have changed as the family packed up and began to move out of the house that Lea grew up in. On top of everything else, she has to leave her best friend behind and life couldn’t possibly get worse. She may not be entirely wrong as she moves to Texas, only to find a strange aunt, no friends, and a strange girl in a blue dress who simply vanished. As Lea begins to investigate the mystery of the strange girl, she manages to make a new friend and gets to know her aunt just a bit more.

I loved everything about this book! The angst of a family being split apart has been shown well and also handled very sensitively. It is hard for parents to explain to their children why they can’t be together anymore. However, there are times when everyone needs to accept that things are just not working out.

The grown-ups in this story have been shown to have flaws. When Lea lands at her Aunt Meg’s doorstep, her aunt, who is a loner, has no clue how to interact with her. However, with time, the author effectively managed to bring them closer together. At one point, Aunt Meg accepts that she may not be handling some things properly with Lea. I loved how the author showed her acknowledging her mistakes and then trying to change some of her behavior towards her niece. I felt like that was an important turning point in the story.

Something else that I loved about the book was its descriptions. It made me feel that the author has personally visited every scene that has been mentioned in the story. There was one description that particularly caught my attention. It was a scene describing the look of a library that Lea visited with her friend. “Tall metal shelves full of boxes stretched away from them into the gloom where the weak bulb didn’t reach, leaving the corners heaped in inky shadows.” The book is filled with many more such descriptions that make us feel like we are standing in the places mentioned.

To be honest, I could find absolutely nothing wrong with this book. It maintains the mystery of the girl till the end of the book. And as we follow along with Lea’s investigation, we are given a nice history of the places mentioned. The book is also very well-edited. I would be more than happy to give this book five out of five stars.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery. The added history lessons are the icing on the cake. Though it is aimed at teenagers and young adults, as a grown-up, I equally enjoyed reading this book!

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SandPeople
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