The Lost Things Club

by J. S. Puller

Overview

Fans of Rebecca Stead and Lynda Mullaly Hunt will embrace this heartwarming story about the effects of grief, the power of friendship, and learning that sometimes not all lost things are meant to be found.
When twelve-year-old Leah goes to spend the summer in Chicago with her little cousin TJ, she's shocked to discover that he's gone mute after surviving a school shooting. She knows there isn't a "right way" to deal with his pain, but when she learns that he's sneaking out to visit a laundromat at night, it seems all wrong.
Determined to discover why the laundromat brings her cousin to life, Leah and her new friend Violet follow him, unwittingly falling into an imaginary world called "The Land of Lost Things," home to the socks and coins and buttons that disappear in the dryer. And when TJ hears about the wonders beyond the portal in the back of the dryer, he actually speaks!

Eager to keep him talking, Leah and her new friends populate the world with characters, performing elaborate puppet shows that grab the attention of YouTube viewers everywhere. Soon Leah realizes that there's something in this special world that TJ has to find and get back. But as the Lost Things Club works together to try and make TJ's dreams a reality, they learn there are some lost things that can't come back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759556102
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/17/2021
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

J. S. Puller is a playwright and author of Captain Superlative and The Lost Things Club. She is an award-winning member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and has done research on the social-emotional benefits of arts education with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. J.S. lives in Chicago. She invites you to visit her at pullerwrites.wordpress.com, on Facebook @puller.writes, and on Twitter @pullerwrites.

Editorial Reviews

The Lost Things Club speaks with great power of two of humanity’s greatest assets: the healing capacity of true empathy, the spacious reach of the imagination.… Writing such a page-turner is a gift.”

—Gary D. Schmidt, Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist

“Sometimes children experience difficult things and can't find the words to talk about them. We need stories like this to help them find their voice and for others to find compassion."  

—Liesl Shurtliff, New York Times bestselling author of Rump

*"Puller illuminates ways children can teach adults about using art to express their emotions and share their stories.... A must-read for starting conversations and opening up dialogue about trauma of any kind.”

—School Library Journal, starred review

"A sweet story about empathy, self-growth, friendship, and family that may inspire readers to seek more information about traumatic mutism."

—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2021

Gr 3–7—In the aftermath of a school shooting that killed an elementary student, TJ, a kindergarten survivor with post-traumatic stress disorder, seeks out companionship and finds support in an unlikely place. TJ's 12-year-old cousin Leah comes to stay with his family for the summer and discovers firsthand how a community heals. TJ has gone mute and sneaks out of the house to meet a friend named Michelle at a laundromat, where they sort through lost items. When Leah discovers TJ's whereabouts, she joins in on the imaginary world by creating a puppet show called the Land of Lost Things, which she films and posts on YouTube. In the process, Leah unknowingly helps herself heal from her parents' divorce years ago. Puller illuminates ways children can teach adults about using art to express their emotions and share their stories. This novel shows young readers and educators alike that while traditional therapy is essential, especially in a crisis, therapy can also develop organically as people share similar experiences. VERDICT A must-read for starting conversations and opening up dialogue about trauma of any kind. An important title for social workers, parents, and educators about the critical role art and imagination can play in healing and bringing people together.—Laura Dooley-Taylor, Lake Zurich M.S. North, IL

School Library Journal

2021-06-11
On her annual visit to her aunt and uncle’s house in Chicago, 12-year-old Leah Abramowitz is distressed by her 7-year-old cousin TJ’s silence.

The premise is thoughtful and poignant: A child survives a school shooting in which one of his classmates is killed, is left severely traumatized, and his cousin manages not only to help him find his voice, but to grow herself. Unfortunately, the overall impression readers are left with is that TJ’s trauma and the initial violence that caused it—an incident that is addressed with activism at the end that feels insufficiently developed—are ultimately vehicles to present Leah’s transformation. She repeatedly expresses her longing to be special and is acutely aware of those she believes possess this quality. First-person narrator Leah also likes answers and certainty, and through the process of helping TJ, she learns to get in touch with her feelings. Her phone is her go-to for all information—her aunt jokes that she’s addicted to it—and her self-absorption contributes to the story’s feeling of tone deafness. Readers will have figured out TJ’s trauma miles before she does. Leah’s narrative voice occasionally sounds too grown-up (“It was, in fact, one of those rare summer days in Chicago. When it was neither too hot nor too sticky”), and the staccato writing style grows tiresome. Leah and her family are Jewish and implied White; one major secondary character presents as Black.

Tackles a challenging subject with insufficient nuance. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews