Ferris

The summer before fifth grade turns out to be a “serious time, in general” for 10-year-old Emma Phineas Wilkey—known as Ferris because of her dramatic birth under a Ferris wheel—as she aids in her idiosyncratic family members’ antics and deals with the unfamiliar emotional terrain that accompanies these encounters. Ferris’s headstrong younger sister, an aspiring felon, is scheming to appear on a “Wanted” poster; Uncle Ted, who is attempting to paint a history of the world while living in Ferris’s basement, recruits Ferris to spy on his estranged wife; and Ferris’s beloved, hopeless romantic grandmother’s heart is failing. But her grandmother is more troubled by the appearance of a ghost that only she can see, so she enlists Ferris’s help in satisfying the specter’s quixotic request. Together with her soft-spoken, piano-playing best friend Billy Jackson, Ferris navigates her joyfully chaotic environment and heeds her grandmother’s wisdom: “Every good story is a love story.” Populated by offbeat, compelling characters with rich histories, this bustling and empathetic tale by DiCamillo (The Puppets of Spelhorst) ponders the courage it takes to love someone and the necessity of inconvenience in life through the eyes of one emotionally curious tween. Main characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)