6 July 2013 MISTER MAX: THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS by Cynthia Voigt and Iacopo Bruno, ill., Knopf, September 2013, 384p., ISBN: 978-0-307-97681-9

“Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau were both morally opposed to slavery. However, they responded very differently to the Fugitive Slave Act, which required the governments of non-slaveholding states to return runaway slaves to their owners.

“Thoreau responded by continuing to help runaway slaves obtain their freedom and refusing to pay taxes to the state of Massachusetts, which was compliant with the Fugitive Slave Act. In paying taxes to a government that enforces the Fugitive Slave Act, Thoreau argued, citizens become morally responsible for slavery. Consequently, only through civil disobedience can citizens remain free from the stain of slavery.

“Thoreau recognized that civil disobedience might have adverse consequences: Individuals risk imprisonment, financial ruin, and ridicule, and widespread resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act might lead to civil war. However, Thoreau considered compromising over slavery in order to avoid adverse consequences selfish and cowardly.  Furthermore, he argued that if civil disobedience leads to war, the blame does not lie with those who refuse to allow themselves to become agents of injustice. The blame instead lies with slave owners and their appeasers who have attempted to force innocent American citizens to assist them in oppressing innocent people.

“Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that citizens have an obligation to obey existing laws, even if they find them morally objectionable. Lincoln himself promised to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act during his first inaugural address.  The idea that citizens can choose to disobey particular laws, Lincoln explained, undermines the sanctity of all laws.  If abolitionists claim the right to disobey laws that they dislike, then other groups are likely to claim a similar right.  In particular, lynch mobs might claim that they have a right to hang African Americans who have been accused of crimes without a proper trial.”

-- from "Lincoln and Thoreau" by Nora Hanagan, The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Retrieved from http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/

So, whose position, do you feel, made more sense?

"'What's the truth about her?'

"'Her owners hired me to find her when she disappeared from where she was tied up, outside the little girl's school,' he said.

"'Tied up?  Why at a school?  Don't they know anything about dogs?'

"'The little girl likes to take her to school,' Max explained.  He didn't want to  go into the whole long story.  'She's not the only one.  It's--it's a kind of contest, I think, a way of showing off, like...like talking about your marks on a test.'

"Joachim thought about this and decided, 'You can't take her back to those people.'

"'But I accepted the job.'

"'You're a detective now?  You have a license?'

"'And I need the money, or I will need it.  They paid me twenty-five.'

"'I'll loan you money if I have to.  Even better, here's what I'll do,' Joachim offered, and for him, Max knew, it was a sacrifice.  'I'll give you lessons for nothing, and that's as good as putting coins in your pocket.  Pay me back when you can.  If you ever can.'

"'But the dog does belong to the girl.'

"'Only legally.'

"'The law is important,' Max said.  He thought but did not say -- not ready to argue this point with Joachim right then -- that just because a law didn't always seem fair to you personally, or wasn't working in your favor, that didn't mean law wasn't necessary.

"'What about what's good for the dog?  The law doesn't protect the dog, so we have to.  Don't tell me you want to give Sunny back to her.'

"Max stroked the golden head and agreed.  'Of course not.  But is it right not to?  Isn't that stealing?'

"'It's right for the dog,' Joachim said.  'Sometimes you have to break one law to obey another, more important one.'"

It's a major deal for me to open the mail and discover the first book in a new series by one of my long-time favorite authors, Cynthia Voigt. 

In fact, I just received a phone call this afternoon from a reading buddy who, on my recommendation, had recently begun reading the award-winning, seven-book Tillerman cycle, and has now finished the last book.  (She'll next be sharing them with her eleven year-old daughter.)

Speaking of the Tillermans, once Max Starling's quirky, theatrical parents mysteriously disappear (the first lost things in this Book of Lost Things), we discover that there's a mighty cool grandmother in this series, too.  Here, Grammie is a former schoolteacher and current City Librarian, and she's a tough old lady with sharp wits, and a pretty good sense of how to support but not smother her grandson, Max.  He, Max, this twelve year-old turned "solutioneer," is going to need all the help he can get in resolving that moral doggie dilemma, as well as figuring out what the heck happened to his parents who were supposed to board a ship that, it turns out, no one has heard of.  In the meantime, Max is keeping himself financed by finding solutions to local problems -- more lost things -- that are all tied to one another through intriguing threads.  Being the son of thespians, he is forever cracking me up with his use of a multitude of costumes and his slipping in and out of a variety of dramatic roles that he's watched his parents play over the years.

This story, the first in a trilogy, is, in turn, sweet, funny, mysterious, and thought-provoking.  Desiring a degree of independence, Max is fortunate to find positive ways to achieve it.  There is a really fun, twelve year-old style, boy-girl friendship that develops between Max and Pia. There is real depth to the secondary characters we meet, including Pia, Gabrielle, Ari, Joachim, and the Baroness. 

I am thoroughly sucked into this tale and will be really pleased when, at some point down the road, Book 2 suddenly appears on my doorstep.   

Richie Partington, MLIS
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