Finding the Lost One (The Extraterrestrial Zoo #1)

A grieving teen and her found family desperately search for an escaped creature in van Leer’s emotionally weighty debut. Abandoned by her father following her mother’s death, 13-year-old Ava lives with her withdrawn veteran uncle Pete. Together, they work as caretakers of her parents’ legacy: a zoo housing two dozen animal-like extraterrestrial living beings (ELBs) recovered from crash sites. Fiercely dedicated to her role as an ELB caretaker, Ava bristles at the hiring of inexperienced blond stranger Harley, a boy about her age who is reeling from his own recent loss. When, during a storm, the animals are freed from their confines and turned loose in the neighboring city, all but two are eliminated by a faceless government agency with ties to Ava’s parents. Initial tension between the main characters pivots to conflicted camaraderie as the teens—along with grouchy, “quasi-raccoon” ELB Pingree—brave the Maine wilderness in a desperate search for both the still at-large catlike ELB Cutis and the answers to secrets from Ava’s past. Inelegant dialogue and a cluttered plot are offset by imaginative creature descriptions and empathetic depictions of Ava and Harley’s mental anguish. The protagonists read as white. Ages 10–14. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary. (Mar.)