OSTRICH EYE

Noting that an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain, Cooley winningly offers a girl whose observations outpace her reason. Ginger, a high-school freshman, is so eager to believe that the eccentric man (who seems to be everywhere) must be the father she last saw when she was three years old, that she overlooks the real object of his affection: her younger stepsister, Vivian. Gracefully developing characters while building towards climax, Cooley pulls the reader in much as Ginger is lulled into trusting the stranger. When the little girl is abducted while in Ginger’s care, the situation forces Ginger and her mother to recognize their inability to communicate and the role that plays in the situation. Although readers will see disaster approaching long before it happens, they will stay tuned to Cooley’s tension-building and the realism portrayed through the mother-daughter conflict, as well as the charm of Ginger’s first love. Unlike ostriches, this story soars. (Fiction. YA)