ALA Booklist
Issue: August 1, 2010

The first US review I have seen of Kate de Goldi's stunning novel, this from the American Library Association's influential magazine

The 10 P.M. Question.
 Kate De GoldiSep 2010. 256 p. Candlewick, hardcover, $15.99
(NZ publisher - Longacre/Random House)

Twelve-year-old Frankie dreams of having his best friend Gigs’ worry-free disposition. But in his family, Frankie feels like he is the only one who “bother[s] doing the thinking” about everything from grocery lists to smoke-alarm batteries, and nothing seems to quiet his internal “rodent voice . . . the perpetual bearer of
unpalatable facts,” once it gets rolling. Then irrepressible tomboy Sydney arrives at school and befriends Frankie almost against his will. Prompted by her brash charm, Frankie begins to follow Sydney’s “book of wacko etiquette and, for once, talk straight and tough” about family mysteries, beginning with the most
obvious and avoided question: Why does Ma never leave the house?

An award-winning best-seller in New Zealand, where it was published in 2008, De Goldi’s novel is an achingly poignant, wryly comic story of early adolescence that invites comparisons to works by authors as varied as Lynne Rae Perkins, Nick
Hornby, and J. D. Salinger. Nearly every character, from Frankie’s cheerfully sardonic teacher to the trio of pillowy, cigar-smoking aunties who give him sanctuary, is a loving, talented, unforgettable eccentric whose dialogue, much like De Goldi’s richly phrased narration, combines heart-stopping tenderness with perfectly timed, deliciously zany humor.

Readers from early teens through adults will be drawn to this beautifully nuanced, unsentimental view of family life, friendship, the heroic requirements of growing up,and the rewards of speaking the unspeakable out loud.

— Gillian Engberg