One Year in Coal Harbor (review)

At the end of Everything on a Waffle (BCCB 3/01), Primrose Squarp was joyfully reunited with her parents, who had been missing at sea for a year. Now she's back in her happy home but still close with Evie and Burt, her affectionate foster parents, and she's delighted when another foster child, a boy named Ked, is placed with them. She and the kindly but taciturn Ked become good friends, with Primrose determined to save him from whatever ill-fortune landed him in foster care. That relationship anchors her days as she attempts to further the romance between her uncle Jack and Miss Bowzer, who runs the restaurant that serves everything on a waffle, and as she joins the protest against logging on nearby Mendolay Mountain. After hoping so hard that Ked will be able to stay, she's absolutely devastated when Ked suddenly leaves their small Canadian fishing town and returns to his abusive father. Horvath again brings Coal Harbor to vivid life through Primrose's sharp-eyed and wittily judgmental narration, yet underneath the coolly observant tone remains a preteen who makes heartfelt connections and yearns for happiness for those she loves. That last is her main challenge here, in fact; as a kid who herself has been the person in need, she's keenly aware of the experience ("It is human nature to secretly suspect that the things that happen to people are really their own fault in some way") and now deeply intent on protecting others from pain ("I can't help thinking I can save the things I love with the force of my feelings"). While it nearly breaks her heart to learn that she can't, the author allows Primrose to discover this fact but also to enjoy an ending of fairy-tale satisfaction. Peppered with the same kind of homey, eccentrically editorialized recipes as the first book, this is a satisfying followup course to the Newbery Honor entree.