Far Far Away

by Tom McNeal
Hennepin County Library paperback 369 pages
genre: YA fantasy, mystery

This grabbed my attention! At first I thought it was just weird (reminiscent of Gaiman's The Graveyard Book) . . . and then I couldn't put it down! Jeremy Johnson Johnson can hear the voice of Jacob Grimm's voice. People just think he's strange. Ginger Boultinghouse is curious.

Mystery -  where have the random children disappeared to over the years?
Tension - will Jeremy be able to save his home and his grandfather's legacy, The Two Book Bookstore?
Romance - does Ginger like Jeremy or Conk more? Will she and Jeremy kiss?
Creepy - why does Deputy McRaven seem to always be lurking around?

One thing I really loved about this book was that the foreign phrases - German, Swedish, etc. - were all translated. This was wonderfully written and a very engaging book. Weird, but quite good. It makes me curious about other books by this author and his wife (they write many together).

I marked one passage - on page 104, Ginger is praying and Jacob is listening. At the end of her prayer, she says, "Please give shelter to those without shelter, food to those without food, and hope to those without hope. Amen." The ghost observes, "A kind prayer . . . drawn from a well of pure belief. I had once had such a well from which to draw and felt a fresh pang that I no longer did." This made me think of people I really know.