All That’s Missing

When his grandfather’s demen­tia rais­es the specter of fos­ter care, Arlo flees to find his only oth­er fam­i­ly mem­ber in this gen­uine, heart­en­ing novel.

Arlo’s grand­fa­ther trav­els in time. Not literally—he just mix­es up the past with the present. Arlo holds on as best he can, fix­ing him­self corn­flakes for din­ner and pay­ing back the own­er of the cor­ner store for the sausages Pop­po eats with­out remem­ber­ing to pay. But how long before some­one finds out that Arlo is tak­ing care of the grand­fa­ther he lives with instead of the oth­er way around? When Pop­po lands in the hos­pi­tal and a social work­er comes to take charge, Arlo’s fear of fos­ter care sends him alone across three hun­dred miles. Armed with a name and a town, Arlo finds his only oth­er fam­i­ly member—the grand­moth­er he doesn’t remem­ber ever meet­ing. But just find­ing her isn’t enough to make them a fam­i­ly. Unfail­ing­ly hon­est and touched with a dash of mag­i­cal real­ism, Sarah Sullivan’s evoca­tive debut nov­el delves into a fam­i­ly mys­tery and unearths uni­ver­sal truths about home, trust, friend­ship, and strength—all the things a boy needs.