ZEBRA FOREST

ZEBRA FOREST by Adina Rishe Gewirtz. Candlewick Press, 2013.

Annie and her brother Rew live with their grandmother. Their mother left them years ago. They have been told that their father is dead. Gran has her good days when she cooks pancakes and tells stories to Rew and annie. But more and more, those good days as=re few and far between. When the social worker comes by, it is Annie who steers her back to the car with assurances that all is well (even when it is not). And then one night, a man enters the house, a man Annie knows to be her father, not dead, but in prison for a long time. He has escaped and plans to hold the family hostage until he can make his way further to freedom. The truths that Annie now has to face are almost unbearable, How can she come to terms with this man, long believed dead, whom Annie has made into some sort of hero? What of the mother who did not want her own children? How can Annie handle these harsh realities?