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Reviewed by:
  • The Art of Secrets by James Klise
  • Deborah Stevenson
Klise, James. The Art of Secrets. Algonquin, 2014. [272p]. ISBN 978-1-61620-195-1 $17.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10.

It’s a tragedy for the Khan family when their apartment goes up in flames, destroying all they own, but fortunately people rally around them to help. The most generous help comes from the toney Highsmith School, where Saba Khan is on scholarship as a sophomore, and from Saba’s service-minded classmate, Kendra Spoon, who joins with her older brother to plan a charity auction to benefit Saba’s family. One of the items the Spoons acquire for the auction turns out to be an undiscovered work by outsider artist Henry Darger, with a value of half a million dollars; the excitement this find brings to the auction turns to consternation when the manuscript disappears, raising suspicion and bitterness throughout the school. Klise weaves an intriguing story through various voices, such as Saba’s father (who fears his young son may have set the apartment fire), Saba’s schoolmates (including the senior class president, who briefly dates Saba as her misfortune makes her prominent), and Highsmith teachers and administration (the self-serving principal is delighted to use the charity auction to promote the school), with newspaper articles and letters filling in additional gaps. Particularly interesting here is the way different characters respond to the situation and how they’re affected by the Khans’ volatile fortunes and [End Page 462] the art mystery. The hairpin-turn twist ending will have surprised readers leafing back through the earlier parts of the book to search for foreshadowing, and it will provoke much discussion about who’s a good guy here and who’s a baddie. The acknowledgments include a further reference for reading about the fascinating art of Henry Darger.

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