Patricia Reilly Giff is one of my favorite middle grade authors. She is able to bring the past alive with engaging characters and fascinating stories. I find her very engaging and I thoroughly enjoy all her books. ( )

Sam, a functionally illiterate ten-year-old who is being raised by a man he believes is his grandfather, is snooping in the attic and finds a small piece of a newspaper article sticking out of a locked box. The part sticking out has a picture of him, and he can manage to read, "Sam Bell, Missing." Since his last name is not Bell, he jumps to the conclusion that his grandfather is not his grandfather, and that he must enlist the aid of a fellow student at school to come home, sneak in the attic, unlock the mystery box, and read the materials to him so he can discover his origins.

Caroline is a new student in school, and she is the one he enlists. The growing friendship between Sam and Caroline - a girl whose family moves to another town several times each year - is the one highlight of this mediocre novel for young readers.

Sam can't read simply because for the story to exist, he needs to get someone's help. There is no other reason for his illiteracy, nor is there any resolution along those lines at the end. And the solution to the great mystery of Sam's origins and the newspaper article are quite anticlimactic. (spoiler) It turns out that, surprise!, the man he always thought was his grandfather really is his grandfather.

If, like me, you adored "Pictures of Hollis Woods" by Patricia Reilly Giff, don't expect that level of literary quality in this novel. Just skip this one altogether. ( )

A young boy had a fear of the number 11 but could not remember why. As we learn more of his story he finds his name on a sheet of paper in the attic that says missing? Was he really apart of the family that he is in? Who is he? We watch as he finds out the story of his life as he meets people who mean the world to him in the way. ( )

Sam is turning 11 and cannot figure out why he is so hung up on that number and why he has snippets of memories that don’t seem to fit with his present life. He is convinced that there is more to his background than what his grandfather Matt, and family friends Onji and Anima have told him. When he finds a box in the attic with an article about a missing boy who resembles him & items that trigger more memories. His attempt to solve the mystery is complicated by his inability to read the article due to his dyslexia. He is motivated and recruits a new classmate, Caroline, to help him with the reading. They uncover the astounding truth about Sam’s past, and in the process become friends despite resistance on both parts. ( )

The title symbolizes the age of Sam. The address of CHILDREN'S home in New York where he lived after his mother died and the chimney stacks on the children's home formed an eleven. The mood of the story is happy and sad. Sam was happy once he found out his past and sad when his friend Caroline had to move away. Sam is the main character and the supporting characters are his friend Caroline, his grandfather Mack and their neighbors Onji and Anima. Sam struggles to read due to dyslexia, so he gets Caroline to help him with the mystery of why he was in a newspaper clipping reporting him missing when he was younger and his name was Sam Bell. He finally talks to Mack and he explained everything. Mack is Sam's grandfather and Sam's mother, Julia Bell, is Mack's daughter who died. The story was very good and full of logicality. It is a good book for us to learn something about dyslexia as well. ( )