Twelve-year-old Claudia and her mother are shocked and scared with Claudia’s father suddenly doesn’t come home one day. When he finally contacts them to stay he’s staying with an old friend to “think things over,” fear turns to anger and confusion. What is he thinking over? Will he ever return? Readers here will likely guess his secret based on how this item is tagged here in the database, but Claudia and her mom remain in the dark for much of the book.
While Claudia’s mother goes off to a conference, Claudia stays with her recently widowed grandfather and starts watching old videos of her dad, hoping for answers. Her dad then mails her a puzzle piece with a secret clue on it, directing her to “Find the time capsule.” His challenge evokes the treasure hunts he used to create for her and the jigsaw puzzles they used to do together. Claudia and her new friend Luis work on solving the mystery, as each answer leads to another puzzling clue.
Once Claudia figures out the final answer, she and her mother must try to absorb this new information about the man they thought they knew. For his part, Claudia’s father hopes that the puzzling quest has reminded Claudia of the fun times they always had, so that she will continue to love him once she knows his secret. Author Kristin Levine has based the story loosely on her own life and her own former husband who had the same secret. She thus handles the secret with compassion and doesn’t play it for shock value.
The story is told as if the book is a scrapbook of notes, e-mails, phone conversations, receipts, flyers, and video transcripts collected by Claudia into a scrapbook. This makes for an engaging, textured story and offers readers themselves a sort of puzzle as they determine how each piece contributes to the whole.
Claudia and her family are cued as White; her friend Luis as Latino.
