THE CLOUD CHAMBER
Joyce Maynard
Atheneum
Fiction
ISBN: 068987152X
288 pages

Nate Chance steps off the school bus to find policemen and their dogs crawling all over his family's ranch in Montana. Even scarier and more shocking is when they take his father away, covered in blood. And what makes it worse is that no one will tell him what's going on. Just the day before, Nate had been planning his science fair project and discussing baseball tryouts with his best friend. Now his whole world has fallen apart, with the eye of the storm centered right on his family. Sure, Nate knew his father hadn't been feeling well, especially with yet another financial disaster striking when the storm destroyed their crops. But his father has always been there for him. Now he's gone, and no one will explain why.

Nate eventually figures it out, but not with the help of his mom or his grandparents. The kids at school suddenly refuse to talk to him; even his best friend won't sit with him at lunch. And then at the store, he overhears some women gossiping in the next aisle over. Nate's father had tried to kill himself, and is now in a mental hospital a few hundred miles away.

Nate is desperate for someone to talk to, but the only one willing is his little sister Junie, and she's just as confused as he is. Life attempts to continue as normal with Junie's seventh birthday party (though only one of the many invitees shows up), Nate gets a science fair partner (the most unpopular girl at school), and spring slowly thaws its way out of winter --- but Nate's heart refuses to be warmed. He figures if only he could visit his dad and talk with him that things would be a little better. But his mom refuses to take him. So he concentrates on building the best science fair project ever in hopes of winning, and hence securing a ticket to the state competition located right near his dad's hospital. In the process, he discovers a couple of special friends who he never before had taken the time to notice; they give him a strong shoulder, a willing ear, and a warm heart to lean on.

Joyce Maynard does a superb and amazing job with this sensitive story. Readers will feel the depths of Nate's emotions as he struggles through this impossible time in his life when his family is falling apart. THE CLOUD CHAMBER hooks the reader's interest and beckons for the pages to be turned. This talented author delivers a heart-wrenching tale that everybody would benefit from --- and enjoy --- reading.

   --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.