*The Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya by Jane Kelley

*The Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya, by Jane Kelley. Feiwel & Friends, 2013, 201 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, Ages 8-10
Maturity Level: 3 (ages 8-10) and up

Bottom line: This sensitive middle-grade novel beautifully explores struggle and loss from two points of view: a girl stricken with leukemia and an African grey parrot.

For Zeno, it starts like any normal day, except that Dr. Asgard, his servant, seems to be taking a nap on the floor. None of the noises Zeno makes will rouse him—not even the odious lab assistant who enters uninvited can make the doctor stir. This is unacceptable: what happened to the Sunday morning muffin routine? With the door wide open, Zeno escapes to the streets of Brooklyn in search of banana nut. It shouldn’t be too hard for a parrot who can say 127 words and imitate 63 sounds. Meanwhile, Alya Logan is staring at the chrome bars of her ugly hospital bed, recently moved into her room in a Brooklyn apartment: Now that her body didn’t do much, her mind drifted like a little boat with a torn sail, all alone on a wide sea.  Nothing tastes good anymore, not even the warm banana-nut muffins her mother brings upstairs. Suddenly a gray parrot appears on her windowsill, demanding his share of the treat. Only a screen separates them before Mrs. Logan slams the window shut.

Discerning readers know that these two will meet again, but first they must experience those “desperate adventures.” Zeno’s are near-misses, captures, and escapes in the external world while Alya struggles with monsters in the dark corner of her room and the temptation to give up her battle with leukemia. Readers experience both points of view as they are drawn into this story of trauma, hope, and rescue.

Cautions: sadness (animal death)

Overall value: 5 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 4
• Artistic value: 5

Categories: Middle Grades, Realistic Fiction, Animal Stories, Read Alouds, Life Issues, Gift Books, Starred Review