Tell Me by Joan Bauer (review)

Summer isn’t looking great for twelve-year-old Anna: her parents are separating, so she’s been sent to stay with her grandmother, leaving behind her friends and her beloved acting job (she gives an inspired performance as a cranberry in an in-store promotion). Resilient Anna manages to find some friends and local theatrical opportunities (she’s a petunia promoting the upcoming Flower Festival) in the small town, but she’s caught in something bigger when she witnesses a frightened girl being forcibly restrained by adults, who then drive away with her. Investigation suggests that the girl is a pawn in human labor trafficking, and with her new allies, Anna doggedly persists in her effort to find and free the girl. Bauer manages the difficult feat of folding the topic of human trafficking into a middle-grade novel about daily-life family and peer struggles; in fact, Anna’s conviction that the missing girl matters is part and parcel of her character throughout, as she similarly commits whole-heartedly to her acting efforts and beloved friends. The author’s usual Capra-esque atmosphere is evident here in the small-town milieu and its collective cooperation for a big cause, but the book refreshingly twists the initially villainous framing of a pushy local businessman, letting him redeem himself with his support of Anna’s search for the missing girl. Though the current-events relevance will bring this title curricular use, readers will appreciate the story for Bauer’s classic and relatable heroine who pursues her goal through adversity.