The Double Life of Zoe Flynn

Zoe Flynn has a secret. She and her family are homeless, living in the family van since her father lost his bookstore and his job. Zoe is successful at keeping her family's plight a secret from her new friend Aliya, police officer Bergstrom and everyone else in Scout River, Oregon, where her father finally finds work. But Zoe misses her big old house in California with its creaky floors, leaky toilet and her own closet hide-away. After a desperate attempt to go back and regain her home fails, Zoe finally discovers that the elusive "door" her grandmother advised her to find is not in her old house but right in the backyard of the trailer she and her family move into. By opening this new door, Zoe opens up her life once again to the joys of friendship, family and her own artistic spririt. Janet Lee Carey's story is well crafted and her writing lyrical. Zoe's character is alive with all the dreams, fears, and yearnings of a young girl struggling to understand and overcome such a dismal situation. This contemporary story of homelessness is ageless in its expression of the love of a place called home.

Zoe feels helpless when her parents announce they must move. Everything Zoe has ever loved is left behind, friends, her town, the redwoods, her secret room. She vows, no matter what, she'll return. Thus begins the tale of a brave young girls as she faces the prospect of being homeless, a new friend who she can't trust with the truth, and a family she loves, but who don't seem to understand how she feels. As things whirl out of control, Zoe decides to do something drastic, something daring, something that will rock everyone's life and change things forever. Carey is a master wordsmith. She has created an imperfect character that I fell in love with immediately. The ending gave me chills as the threads that had been woven so materfully throughout the story came together in a satisfying way. If you haven't read one of Carey's other books, then you are missing a rare treat.

This is a lovely novel about a feisty eleven year old whose family loses their home and moves to Oregon from California, where they live in a van while Zoe goes to school, and tries very hard to keep her friends from finding out this fact. The premise is touching, heart-breaking at times, but perhaps the best part of the novel is the lyricism of Carey's voice, her sensitivity to a 11 year old's hopes and fears, her use of language, her attention to tension and resolution.