The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas

by Kimberly Willis Holt

Overview

Kimberly Willis Holt's The Ambassador of Nowhere, Texas is a stunning post-9/11 companion to the National Book Award-winner When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.

Decades after the Vietnam War and Toby’s life-changing summer with Zachary Beaver, Toby’s daughter Rylee is at a crossroads—her best friend Twig has started pushing her away just as Joe, a new kid from New York, settles into their small town of Antler. Rylee befriends Joe and learns that Joe’s father was a first responder on 9/11. The two unlikely friends soon embark on a project to find Zachary Beaver and hopefully reconnect him with Rylee's father almost thirty years later.

This beautiful middle grade novel is a tribute to friendships—old and new—and explores the challenges of rebuilding what may seem lost or destroyed.

Christy Ottaviano Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250234100
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	296,669
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Kimberly Willis Holt is the acclaimed author of many award-winning novels, including The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas, The Lost Boy’s Gift, Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel, Dear Hank Williams, The Water Seeker, My Louisiana Sky, and When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the author of the popular Piper Reed chapter book series and several picture books. Holt lives in Texas.

Editorial Reviews

01/11/2021

Following rising seventh grader Rylee, this post–9/11 companion to 1999’s When Zachary Beaver Came to Town revisits familiar characters—including Rylee’s father, Toby, that novel’s protagonist—to poignantly capture a narrative centering both true friendship and national grief. After longtime town librarian and photographer Miss Myrtie Mae dies, she bequeaths Toby a photo of himself; his best friend, Cal; and Zachary Beaver, whose sideshow visited Antler, Tex., in the summer of 1971. Recently shunned by her longtime best friend, Rylee forges a new friendship with Joe, a newcomer from Brooklyn with a painful secret. Determined to locate Beaver, Rylee and Joe comb through the past at the library, piecing together the circus’s timeline after 1971 while contending with their own personal upheavals. Returning readers will appreciate National Book Award winner Holt’s attention to detail as she revisits characters, while newcomers will be drawn to Rylee’s empathy, protectiveness of her community, and curiosity about the world and her place in it. The thoughtfully drawn setting circumvents the ease of contemporary internet access, creating a hearty mystery unraveled with local librarians’ assistance and earnest intergenerational conversations. A quiet celebration of friendship, no matter how brief. Ages 10–14. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"In this companion to the author’s memorable When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, 30 years have passed and it’s 2001. Evocatively written (“stiff as burnt bacon”), this is an altogether absorbing and affecting novel. It’s obvious that Holt loves her fully realized characters and their small-town setting, and readers can’t help but feel the same." —Booklist, starred review

"Holt deftly intertwines the stories of the individuals from both books, each set at a pivotal time in our country’s past, the earlier work during the Vietnam War and the latter in the aftermath of 9/11. This volume is a literary reunion of sorts, but more important is its deep examination of the meaning and responsibilities of friendship, family, and community." —Horn Book

"A quiet celebration of friendship, no matter how brief." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2020-10-13
This sequel to Holt’s National Book Award winner, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (1999), revisits Antler, Texas, 30 years later; this time our guide is Toby’s daughter, Rylee.

Rylee, 12, is a passionate booster of her tiny hometown. Unlike her mercurial best friend, Twig, she’s blessed with a happy family. Rylee’s stunned by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then heartsick over their faltering friendship. Joe, a new classmate from Brooklyn, provides welcome distraction. He ridicules Antler but warms to self-appointed tour guide Rylee, who piques his interest in Zachary Beaver. Learning how the attacks affected Joe’s family makes 9/11 personal to locals. Stalwart Rylee, navigating tween angst, is engaging, but comprehensive updates on characters from the first novel slow the narrative. Little has changed for the White residents. Antler’s success story is Juan Garcia, the impoverished teen from the Mexican side of town, now a world-famous golfer, his childhood home a tourist attraction. Juan’s affluent extended family includes the brilliant Garcia twins, Rylee’s classmates. A new character, Vietnamese immigrant Mr. Pham, cooks for and lives at the bowling alley’s cafe. He suddenly buys the town’s mansion, planning to open an upscale restaurant. White residents’ struggles, missteps, and achievements are affectionately chronicled; the Garcias and Mr. Pham get no humanizing backstories, and they seem to serve to validate Antler’s post-racial bona fides.

Sticks to the shallows. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews