Far Out! - by Anne Bustard

About the Book

In 1964 in Totter, Texas, Magnolia Jean Crook--an aspiring detective and a firm believer in UFOs--is desperate to protect her grandmother Mimi against accusations of theft, especially when Mimi's recent memory lapses may signal something serious.

Book Synopsis

From the author of Blue Skies comes a lively middle grade novel about a young, alien-loving girl trying to clear her grandmother's name in this mystery that has humor, hijinks, and heart in equal measure.

It's 1964, the Space Race is well underway, and eleven-year-old Magnolia Jean Crook and the other residents of Totter, Texas, are over the moon about UFOs.

The whole town is gearing up for the First Annual Come on Down Day--in just one week, they are hoping to host any and all space aliens who would like to visit Earth. But right before the kick-off party, a meteorite goes missing--and MJ's beloved grandmother Mimi, who is the vice president of the Totter Unidentified Flying Object Organization, is the prime suspect.

MJ is desperate to show the town that this Crook is not a thief. The only problem is that there is a lot of evidence against her, and Mimi herself isn't helping things. She's acting suspiciously, pulling disappearing acts, and worst of all, can't seem to answer any questions about where she was or what she was doing.

But much like UFOs, extraterrestrial visitations, and sending people to space, the impossible has been known to happen.

Review Quotes

"Bustard fills her cast with a realistic mix of friends, rivals, supportive parents, and neighborly townsfolk (many given animated faces by Rowland's vignettes at each chapter's head), capturing a vivid sense of the rhythms and atmosphere of small-town life in the early 1960s--inspired, she writes, by a real event staged in the 1970s. Readers fond of comfy tales set in small Southern towns (practically a genre all its own) will enjoy meeting Magnolia Jean."--Booklist

"A sometimes meandering plot centers solidly on the book's compassionate protagonist, whose colloquial narrative reflects the town's quirky affability, offers a loving view of an intergenerational relationship, and touches on themes of memory and belief."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Anne S. Bustard is the former co-owner of Toad Hall Children's Bookstore and an MFA graduate from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the middle grade novels Anywhere But Paradise, Blue Skies, and Far Out!, as well as two picture books: Rad! and Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly, which was an IRA Children's Book Award Notable and a Bank Street Book of the Year.