Title: The Dollar Kids
Author: Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Reviewer: Yolanda Ridge
ISBN: 9780763694746
Full disclosure: I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Richard Jacobson both as a writer and a person. She was my mentor at the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop and I have so much respect for her knowledge and talent. I have previously reviewed Paper Things but I’ve read everything she’s written and I love it all. I had no doubt The Dollar Kids would take me on the same emotional journey I’ve come to expect from her middle grade titles.
I was not wrong.
The Dollar Kids opens with the tragic death of 12-year-old Lowen Grover’s neighbour and younger friend, Abe. The responsibility Lowen feels for Abe’s death drives the rest of the narrative from the Grover’s family decision to buy a dollar house in a small, rundown old mill town to Lowen’s interactions with the new people he meets in Millville. Lowen’s guilt drips off the pages, making it hard for him to live next to a funeral home, make new friends, and continue to draw comics – formerly his most favourite past time.
What I love most about this book is the nuanced characters. Jennifer Richard Jacobson does a great job of showing how the entire Grover family reacts and adjusts to Abe’s death. She also examines the concept of dollar houses as a way of revitalizing dying towns. At the climax, a town divided has become a community and Millville is saved through sheer determination and co-operation. I especially love what Mr. Avery – a former Mill worker and one of the most verbally opposed to the dollar houses – learns from his grandson:
“At one time or another, everyone needs help – and everyone, at one time or another, can find a way to be helpful.”
Highly recommended.