Lenny's Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee (review)

Lenny, short for Lenore, is in third grade in 1974, and she and her single mother (Lenny's father left years ago) are worried about her little brother, Davey, who's way too tall for his age at five. Davey's disturbing growth overshadows the siblings' days of contentedly poring over their Burrell's Build-It-At-Home Encyclopedia, which comes section by section in the mail (Lenny, a budding coleopterist, is obsessed with the Beetles entry), and in a little over a year, when Davey is 5'3", he's taken to a specialist in Chicago; the diagnosis is a pituitary tumor, and the solution is surgery. Though it looks initially like the surgery may have cured Davey, his height soon begins to creep up again, and it's clear the tumor's uncheckable growth is threatening his life. Foxlee is masterful in her control of tone here, with a Jack Gantos–style taste for eccentricity that soon folds into a poignant story about family and fear and loss (in addition to the plot about Davey, Lenny cultivates a secret friendship with an aunt—or so she initially believe—of her missing father). The pace is delineated by chapter headings that give the month and year and Davey's increasing height with the heartless precision of a ticking clock, while the alphabetic progression of the encyclopedia volumes (and the interspersed communications between the encyclopedia and Lenny's mother, which grow from superficial and antagonistic to a strangely genuine connection) deepens the trajectory. The conclusion takes it straight into sodden-hankie territory, and readers will sympathize with Lenny's frustrations, yearning, and love along the way. DS