The Dollar Kids

Jacobson, Jennifer Richard. The Dollar Kids. 2018. 403p. ISBN 978-0-7636-9474-6. Available at FIC JAC on the library shelves.

Lowen Grover and his family are starting a new adventure in the small town of Millville. His family applied for the town’s Dollar Program and was granted a dilapidated house owned by the town for the symbolic price of $1, provided that within a year they fix it up and become part of the community. His mother will open a restaurant serving Cornish pasties, while his father hopes to start his own medical clinic under supervision of a local doctor. As the youngest of his family, Lowen will be attending Millville’s school with his brother Clem and his sister Anneth.

The town is not giving away houses out of the goodness of its heart. Since the paper mill closed, more than half of its population has moved away, and the number of kids left in school has reached such a low number that authorities are now considering closing it down and shipping students elsewhere. By welcoming the Grovers and three other families with three or more kids, the town authorities hope to stop Millville’s decline.

Twelve-year-old Lowen is especially keep to leave the city of Flintlock, because everything reminds him of his friend, nine-year-old Abe, who was shot and killed during a convenience store robbery. Lowen, a developing comic-book illustrator, wanted Abe out of his hair that day and had given him money to go to the store, buy candy, and come back, thinking that this would provide him with a few minutes of peace to finish the comic he was working on. Instead, it has gotten him unceasing suffering as the one responsible for sending Abe to his death. Moving to a new town might just allow him to escape this painful memory.

Not everyone in Millville is behind the Dollar Program, however, and the arrival of so many new faces ruffles some feathers, especially as the town’s new residents begin opening businesses that compete directly with established concerns. As the year progresses, and as more and more problems appear with the house, can the Grover family regroup and work together to fix their house, and at the same time overcome their new neighbors’ reticence and help Millville rebound?

A great coming of age story, Lowen’s guilt at the death of Abe follows him throughout the book, but his new friends and surrounding help him understand that he ultimately was not responsible for Abe’s demise and that sharing his memories of him is the best way to honor his friend. Readers who appreciate realistic fiction with social and familial conflict will enjoy Lowen’s tale of woes and redemption.