FRANNIE IN PIECES

Frannie loses the one person in her life she feels really understands her. Danielle Ferland gives a believable voice to Frannie, making mysterious events seem real. On March 24, one week before she turns 15, Frannie discovers her father, an artist, dead in the bathroom. Two months later, she finds what she assumes was to be her birthday present, a handmade wooden box, filled with wooden puzzle pieces, with her name carved in the lid. As Frannie assembles the puzzle, she finds herself going into and out of the scene it depicts. As she learns to see beyond what her eyes tell her, Ferland skillfully depicts the pieces of this vulnerable teenager's life coming back together. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 08]