US ACCOLADES CONTINUE FOR KATE DE GOLDI'S THE 10 PM QUESTION

In the latest review to appear it has been awarded a star by Kirkus Reviews. A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.

A talented artist and observer of birds, 12-year-old New Zealander Frankie has always been friends with his pal Gigs. Their vividly imagined world includes a secret language shared by the two boys, which they use to talk about events around them even as some of their concerns shift from those of childhood to adolescence.

However, it takes the introduction of new girl Sydney, spectacularly confident and full of kind curiosity, to broach the single topic never discussed by anyone, why Frankie's gentle, Russian novel-­reading mom never goes outside their house. De Goldi has created in Frankie a character as real, vulnerable and endearing as any that exist in print.
His relationships with each of his family members from  the father everyone calls Uncle George to the brother whose dog is named after The Kinks' frontman Ray Davies are filled with loving detail and wild humor.

 Gorgeously written, this bittersweet chronicle of family complexities  is wise but never pat, a masterful meditation on anxiety and courage  that will be savored by thoughtful readers. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Footnote:
The 10 PM Question is published in NZ by Longacre (Random House) and in the US by Candlewick.

 The 10PM Question (2008), won Book of the Year and Best Young Adult fiction at the 2009 New Zealand Post Children and Young Adults' Book Awards. It was also runner-up in the Fiction category at the Montana NZ Book Awards 2009, at which it won the Readers' Choice Award.
Right - the very handsome NZ cover.