Book Recommendation: A Tangle of Knots

As (most of) you know, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate won the 2013 Newbery Award. I sit on the Rhode Island Mock Newbery committee, and am using summer vacation as a chance to start reading the books that lots of other librarians are recommending as possible 2014 winners. When I read a good one, I'll let you all know to look for it at the public library (because I won't be able to buy new books for school until next June!).

So, here is my first recommendation:

source: lisagraff.com

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff. NOTE: She wrote Umbrella Summer, which circulated a lot this year, and Double Dog Dare, which is on the current RICBA list.

Here is the jacket copy:

"In a remarkable world where many people are blessed with a special Talent, 11-year-old Cady is an orphan with a phenomenal ability for cake baking ... and now idea of the journey that Fate set in place for her the moment she was born. But when Cady moves into an upstairs room in the town's Lost Luggage Emporium, she meets a curious cast of characters whose lives are tangled with her own in ways she never could have imagined. There's the ragtag group of siblings struggling to grow beyond their Talents, the woman without any words, and the devious thief on a single-minded mission. And the one thing that ties them all together just might lie inside a single powder-blue suitcase. In a story that falls into place like a magnificent puzzle, these encounters hold the key to unraveling the mystery of Cady's past."

I'm not big on "fate," but I love an intricate plot. See if YOU can figure out all of the connections before the ending!