All That's Missing

Poppo's mind wandered. And Poppo wandered, too. Sometimes. Not often. Not yet, anyway. Arlo's grandfather travels in time. Not literally - he just mixes up the past with the present. Eleven-year-old Arlo holds on as best he can - because his grandfather is all the family he knows. Arlo fixes himself cereal for dinner and gives money to the owner of the corner store for the sausages Poppo takes without remembering to pay. But how long before someone finds out that Arlo is taking care of his grandfather instead of the other way around? When Poppo lands in the hospital and a social worker comes to take charge, Arlo's fear of foster care sends him alone across three hundred miles. Armed with a name and a town, Arlo finds his only other family member - the grandmother he doesn't remember ever meeting. But just finding her isn't enough to make them a family. Unfailingly honest and touched with a dash of magical realism, Sarah Sullivan's evocative debut novel delves into a family mystery and unearths universal truths about home, trust, friendship, and strength - all the things a boy needs.