Horn Book Review
Lucy hates being the only one in her family who can't sing. But when the family travels to North Dakota to help protect Aunt Frankie's farm from the rising Red River, Lucy, an aspiring poet, discovers the strength of her own gifts. This is a sparely written, lyrical story about a pleasingly old-fashioned, close-knit, appealing family. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Filled with little moments of quiet wisdom and gentle humor, Newbery winner MacLachlan's story about family love soars. Lucy is the only member of her family who cannot sing. Everyone elseher father, her mother, and her younger sister, Gracesings on pitch. Even her toddler brother, Teddy, who does not yet talk, singsalthough only Lucy knows this, as Teddy sings to her secretly each night. But while Lucy cannot sing (she thinks), she is planning to be a poet, and as she and her family journey across the Minnesota prairie in an old Volkswagen bus and arrive at her aunt's home on the Red River in North Dakota, she composes poems, hoping to write one for her father that is "as beautiful as a cow." (Her father loves cows.) The story, told in first person by Lucy, is ostensibly simple. But in the hands of MacLachlan, simple becomes sparely elegant, and the narrative unfolds to reveal a world of secrets, strengths, fears, and aspirations both relinquished and recovered, with a frisson of tension that rises as the Red River floods. The climax, when it comes, is less of a nail-biter and more of a warm, cozy blanket of love and supportand readers won't mind one bit. A story that never cloys, succeeding on all levels. (Fiction. 6-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.