Sunday, February 19, 2012

SEE YOU AT HARRY'S by Jo Knowles

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley.
Release date: 5/8/2012

Hungry for homemade ice cream?  Head over to Harry's.  Twelve year old Fern is getting sick and tired of hearing "See you at Harry's."  Her family owns the ice cream parlor/restaurant, and it is practically consuming their lives.

Twelve year old Fern has much to worry about.  She is starting middle school, but it's not just any middle school.  The school is two stories with the middle school on the first floor and the high school on the second.  For the first time she will be riding the bus with high school students.  She's hoping her older brother Holden will provide some moral support, but Holden has problems of his own.

In the meantime Fern's father has everyone scrambling as he works to create new promotional ads for the restaurant.  There's an embarrassing family picture scheduled and a crazy commercial that is sure to be a disaster.  Fern's mother is stressed and spends most of her day in meditation in the room up above the restaurant while Fern's eighteen year old sister makes out with Gil one of the kitchen helpers.  All this confusion means that three year old Charlie gets shuffled from one care giver to another.

On the morning little Charlie is discovered lifeless in his bed, everyone in the family is rocked with guilt.  How could everyone have been so focused on themselves that Charlie could end up dead?  Is it possible for life to continue when a piece of it is missing?

Author Jo Knowles outdoes herself in SEE YOU AT HARRY'S.  Filled with powerful emotional drama, the story takes readers into the heart of a family full of love but distracted by daily pressures.  The strength of love is tested as Fern's family struggles to survive one of the worst tragedies to strike a family.

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