109. Lost Evangeline. Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by Sophie Blackall. 2025. 160 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, j fantasy, j fiction]
First sentence: There was once a boy who longed to go to the sea.
Premise/plot: An unhappily married man--a shoemaker--finds a little girl the size of a thumb. Together these two dream of going to sea. Perhaps one of them or even both of them believe it. His wife--remember how unhappily married he is--despises the girl, Evangeline. She sells Evangeline as an oddity to a rich neighbor. Evangeline escapes via a cat. (She convinces the cat that sea life is the best life.) By the time she returns home, her father has gone. Gone where? To look for her. So she sets off in search of him who is searching for her. Will anyone who is searching find the person they are looking for?
My thoughts: I did not like this one even slightly. As a kid, I would have despised it. It was weird--which could be good or bad depending on the reader's perspective. If this one wasn't Kate DiCamillo would anyone give it a great review? I'm not convinced. Would it be selling as well as it has? Probably not. It isn't that the writing is poor. It's not. That's why three stars. But the plot is just all kinds of weird. And the whole book is just absurdly whimsically melancholy.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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