Sarah Ellis Odd Man Out
   163 pp. Groundwood 9/06 ISBN 0-88899-702-7 $16.95
   Paper edition ISBN 0-88899-703-5 $6.95
   (Intermediate)
During a month at his grandmother's island house (slated to be torn down at the end of the summer), twelve-year-old Kip learns a difficult truth about his father, who died seven years earlier, and comes to terms with his mother's recent remarriage. In the attic, which Kip claims as his bedroom/refuge ("your dad's territory," according to Gran), he finds an old binder filled with his father's teenage writing, and he's immediately drawn into a story about an unnamed young operative, undercover agents, and evildoers. He's especially impressed with his dad's precise illustrations of various weapons and espionage technology. This really cool spy thriller helps Kip feel closer to the man he barely remembers; eventually, however, it becomes clear that "Operation Mitochondria" is really Kip's father's account of his own paranoid reality. Ellis's language is restrained but rich, and she brings readers directly into Kip's world, never wavering from his sensitive point of view; and Kip's gradual understanding of his father's mental illness is affecting. The characterization is vivid, fleshing out most of the secondary characters, including Kip's five lively girl cousins (ages seven to fourteen). In Gran's house, past and present, reality and imagination ebb and flow, ultimately giving Kip room to contemplate the changes he faces in the future. K.F.