The September Sisters

March 30, 2009
In her memorable debut novel, Cantor follows a family so devastated by the disappearance of a daughter that it never fully recovers. One summer morning, Abby, 12, and her parents wake to find Abby's 10-year-old sister Becky missing, with no clues about who took her or why. In the days that follow, all three undergo the scrutiny of their suspicious community and baffled police, and as the months pass, Abby's mother spirals into a detached depression as her father becomes consumed with searching for a daughter he refuses to believe is dead. Abby, ostracized at school, finds a quiet, supportive friendship with Tommy, a neighboring teenager, which develops into a tentative first love. The recurring intrusion of Abby's memories of her sister and her wide range of emotions (ranging from resentment and uselessness to heartache) make the story startlingly real. (“It began to dawn on me that dead was better than missing, vanished, disappeared. At least dead was final.”) Cantor offers no happy ending, but a poignant final scene shows that, despite distance and circumstance, Abby remains connected to her sister. Ages 12–up.

June 1, 2009
Gr 6-10-When her younger sister is kidnapped, 13-year-old Abby endures the suspicion flung at her family and her loss of friends at school by befriending Tommy, a neighbor's tacitly angry biracial grandson. Both are social outcasts in this small Pennsylvania town, and their mutual support gives them the strength to weather their loneliness, turning eventually into a quiet romance. Abby's voice, resigned and mildly plaintive, rings true, as does the author's depiction of a family beset by the kind of grief a kidnapping might bring. The small cast of characters is sharply divided: the family members are complicated and wonderfully drawn, but the neighbors, police, and other teens are mainly surface. Abby, who tells the story two years after the kidnapping, when Becky's body is found, is likable, and readers are easily drawn along to follow her progress and to find out what happened to her sister, a question that is answered without sensationalism in the end."Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2009
Grades 7-12 In this debut novels dramatic opening, Abigail is called out of her tenth-grade class to hear the words that shes been waiting for since her sister, Becky, went missing two years ago: Theyve found her. Who took Becky? Whereisthe body? Was she murdered? The police consider Abigails depressed mother a prime suspect. Is she cheating on her husband? The story goes on too long, but what will hold readers, along with the suspense of the whodunit, is the honesty of the sibling story. Abigail remembers her quarrels with her sister and their rivalry for their parents attention, and her first-person narrative tells the truth about the breakup ofa family; her grief, anger and long-time jealousy; and even her complicated feelings after she makes out with the boy next door. The dialogue, clipped and intense, leaves room for readers to recognize their own experiences in the words. And, always, there is the suspense: Where is Becky? Is missing worse than dead?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
The summer before Abby turns thirteen, her ten-year-old sister, Becky, disappears. Abby's parents keep her in the dark about the investigation, even as their family unravels. The book spans two years, between Becky's disappearance and her being found, and Cantor successfully combines mundane elements of life going on with the family's unbearable tension (though the story's ending is rushed).

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)