All the Greys on Greene Street

by Laura Tucker

Overview

"A dazzling debut novel about resilience, courage, home and family."—Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me

SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist—and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye.

Then everything falls apart. Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . .

Olympia knows her dad is the key—but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

Lauded by critics in five starred reviews, All the Greys on Greene Street has been called "a remarkable debut" and "a triumph."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451479532
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,073,971
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	910L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Laura Tucker has coauthored more than twenty books, including two New York Times bestselling memoirs. She grew up in New York City around the same time as Olympia, and now lives in Brooklyn with her daughter and husband; on Sunday mornings, you can find her at the door of Buttermilk Channel, one of their two restaurants. She is a cat person who cheats with dogs. All the Greys on Greene Street is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

…this novel is a richly textured delight: an art world mystery, a family drama, a sensitive depiction of depression, a crash course in colors and a portrait of a young artist. Ollie's first-person perspective is so persuasive, it seems she really can manage by herself, until a friend stands beside her and we suddenly see her world through different eyes…"Draw what you see," Ollie's father taught her, "not what you think you see." It's an idea that resonates because Tucker has written with such compassion and intelligence about what we see, what we overlook and what we try to hide.

The New York Times Book Review - Nalini Jones

★ 04/15/2019

It’s spring 1981, and Ollie, 12, is trying her best to keep her sculptor mother’s latest depressive episode a secret. Her mom hasn’t gotten out of bed since a week after Ollie’s art restorer father fled mysteriously to France in the middle of the night, leaving behind a cryptic note for Ollie alone. The cautious girl declines to share either piece of information with the sympathetic grown-ups in her life, including her father’s business partner, the dependable Apollo, who teaches her about mixing pigments—and with whom her father quarreled about an enigmatic wooden statue before he left. Ollie herself is an observant and talented sketch artist, and her creative sensibility shines through in Murphy’s spot illustrations and the lovely first-person narrative (a building is said to be “wearing its own fire escape like the hard jewelry on the girls outside the bars on St. Mark’s Place”). Tucker skillfully balances themes of mental illness, friendship, and creativity under tough circumstances in her memorable debut. The vibrant, eccentric characters are authentic, the early-1980s SoHo setting is clearly wrought (rich with descriptive details such as fad diets and artist-in-residence lofts), and the Konigsburg-tinged art mystery satisfies. Ages 8–12. Author’s agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (June)

Publishers Weekly

I absolutely loved All the Greys on Greene Street. It’s a dazzling debut novel about resilience, courage, home and family.”—Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me
 
“A truly wonderful book about art and mystery, friendships and family. You are bound to fall in love with Ollie and you’ll long remember her story.”—Patricia Reilly Giff, Newbery Honor author of Lily's Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods
 
"I’m not sure how its quiet power works, but it works; I stand in front of it, and I’m breathless. The last book that made me feel this way was Rebecca Stead's Goodbye Stranger." —Jack Cheng, award-winning author of See You In the Cosmos

“Skillfully grounded in time and place, full of colorful characters and pearls of wisdom, Ollie’s story shows how it’s possible to save ourselves when the people around us can’t.” —Wendy Mass, New York Times bestselling author of The Candymakers

“This is a beautiful book—a love letter to art, friendship, and family. I devoured it.” —Tae Keller, author of The Science of Breakable Things

★ "A brilliant mediation on the artistic life, the way shapes and color infuse perception, howconcentration can lead to illumination, and how creation is gift available to all in myriad forms . . . Tucker's writing is exquisite and as preciseas brush stroke. A remarkable debut." —Booklist, starred review

★ "Tucker skillfully balances themes of mental illness, friendship, and creativity under tough circumstances in her memorable debut." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "A host of honest, flawed, deeply sympathetic characters that are poignant and funny are at once unique and familiar . . . Lovely, sad, hopeful, and memorable." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★  "A poignant and well-structured debut novel that’s sure to satisfy." —BookPage, starred review

"[A] brilliant debut novel . . . a richly texture delight: an art world mystery, a family drama, a sensitive depiction of depression, a crash course in colors and a portrait of a young artist . . . Tucker has written with such compassion and intelligence about what we see, what we overlook, and what we try to hide." —The New York Times

"The story of Olympia, her art, and her devoted friends that will absorb readers here." —BCCB Reviews

From the Publisher

04/01/2019

Gr 6–8—Olympia is a 12-year-old living in New York with her artist parents when her father suddenly leaves their family for France. After her father leaves, her mother spirals into a deep depression and never leaves her bed. Upon his departure, her father leaves her a secret note, and Olympia, with her friends Richard and Alex, must solve the mystery of why her father has disappeared so suddenly, and who is he running from—and running to. This book covers tough topics such as depression, a parent leaving the family for unknown reasons, the complexities of adult relationships, and more. The aspect of the art mystery gives the story a lighter tone to complement the dark happenings in Olympia's personal life and family. VERDICT A strong selection for any middle school child whose parent may have left, and a great way to spark a difficult discussion between parents and children.—Maeve Dodds, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

School Library Journal

★ 2019-03-03

Sixth-grader Olympia—called Ollie by her best friends, Richard and Alex—is left fending for herself when her father disappears and her mother experiences a major depressive crisis.

A vividly depicted urban landscape firmly establishes this novel in the SoHo of 1981, where Ollie lives in a converted industrial loft and picks up packs of cigarettes and Tab at a store on Broadway for her mom. A talented artist, Ollie's mom has stopped getting out of bed since Ollie's father, an art restorer, embarked on a clandestine trip to France a week before. At first glance, this elegantly nostalgic and leisurely paced story, sparingly illustrated with delicate pencil drawings, is a mystery involving a valuable wood carving on which Ollie's dad and his business partner, Apollo, were working. However, there are so many other themes at play—including the intricacies of friendships, the pain of living with depression, and art's ability to create meaning out of life's ordinary and sometimes-difficult circumstances—that it defies simple genre categorization. A host of honest, flawed, deeply sympathetic characters that are poignant and funny are at once unique and familiar. Ollie, her parents, and Alex seem to be white by default, Apollo grew up in Poland, and Richard is a black boy of Haitian heritage. There is realistic ethnic diversity reflected in secondary and background characters.

Lovely, sad, hopeful, and memorable. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews

Taylor Meskimen portrays Ollie, a 12-year-old living in gritty downtown New York City in 1981 with her parents, who are artists. When her father mysteriously leaves their family, her mother spirals into depression and neglects Ollie. Fending for herself, Ollie is afraid to tell the truth to anyone who could help her. Finally, her friend Alex tells a grown-up—their parents’ artist friend, Apollo—and Ollie’s family crisis comes to a head. Meskimen’s pacing is even and slow, matching the tempo of the evolving story and Ollie’s meandering observations about her city home. As Ollie’s situation becomes more dire, listeners hear anger, confusion, frustration, and desperation in her voice. Her mother’s tired monotone reflects her debilitating mental illness. S.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

JULY 2019 - AudioFile

Taylor Meskimen portrays Ollie, a 12-year-old living in gritty downtown New York City in 1981 with her parents, who are artists. When her father mysteriously leaves their family, her mother spirals into depression and neglects Ollie. Fending for herself, Ollie is afraid to tell the truth to anyone who could help her. Finally, her friend Alex tells a grown-up—their parents’ artist friend, Apollo—and Ollie’s family crisis comes to a head. Meskimen’s pacing is even and slow, matching the tempo of the evolving story and Ollie’s meandering observations about her city home. As Ollie’s situation becomes more dire, listeners hear anger, confusion, frustration, and desperation in her voice. Her mother’s tired monotone reflects her debilitating mental illness. S.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

JULY 2019 - AudioFile