Review Detail

Reader reviewed by LJK

Silent to the Bone opens with a 911 call; baby Nikki has slipped into a coma, and her nanny tries to revive her while her older half-brother makes the phone call. Branwell, the brother, has been struck mute, however, and so he is taken away to a Juvenile facilty after his sister, now in a coma, is taken to the hospital. But what really happened? Branwell's best friend, Connor, is left to unravel the mystery of Nikki's accident, and why his friend can't, or won't, speak of it.

As I sat to write this summary, I realized how completely inadequate just a paragraph would be. There is so much going on in this novel, so many interlacings of relationships, that a summary cannot do it justice. E.L. Konigsburg has lost none of her skill since From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and I believe this may be her best work yet. Readers of all ages will be engrossed by the mystery of Nikki's accident, yet the true beauty lies in the story of her family, and how small events can have large consequences. This book is definitely not to be missed!