Seeking Cassandra

by Lutricia Clifton

When work takes Cassie's mom abroad, Cassie is stuck living with her dad in his Winnebago in Palo Duro Canyon State Park for the summer. She loves her dad, but he's different since the divorce, and for that matter, so is she. She's gotten used to a different lifestyle that's not exactly compatible with the rougher living in the Canyon, where her dad is a handyman. She misses the conveniences of city living, and she's not too sure about the kids here. They seem awkward. Uncool. And, in the case of mysterious X, possibly dangerous. When several arrowheads go missing from an archeological dig site on park property, Cassie immediately has a suspect in mind. But when she starts jotting down clues in a detective journal and putting the pieces together, Cassie feels uneasy. Have her assumptions about other people led her down the wrong path?

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2016

About the author

Lutricia "Lu" Clifton writes novels for both children and adults. Most of her adult novels are set in southeastern Oklahoma and include a mingling of Native American cultural beliefs and traditions. She became interested in those cultural traditions while tracing her mother’s Choctaw roots.

She was born in and spent her early childhood in southeastern Oklahoma, then moved to the Texas Panhandle with her family. She completed an associate degree at Amarillo Junior College in Texas and a B.A. and M.A. in English at Colorado State University. She now resides in Illinois with a gray tabby named Mary Jane that she rescued from a shelter. Her oldest son and wife life in Oregon and her youngest son and wife live in Illinois.

She is a member of the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Mystery Writers of America, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

NEW RELEASE: SEEKING GRACE IN BEULAH LAND, A Novel -- April 1, 2019

HONORS/AWARDS:

FREAKY FAST FRANKIE JOE -- 2012 Friends of American Writers Award for Juvenile Fiction

SEEKING CASANDRA --Winner of the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for YA Fiction

SCALP DANCE--A Sam Chitto Mystery --Finalist for the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction

THE BONE PICKER, A Sam Chitto Mystery Finalist for 2018 Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction

THE HORNED OWL --A Sam Chitto Mystery -- Finalist for 2019 Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction

Reviews

[PeaceTrain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fictional kids in the book live in a broken world—the same kind of world that real kids live in today. Broken homes. Parents having difficulty finding balance in their lives. Peer pressure and jealousy. Finger pointing and body shaming. The point is made clear from the beginning that the main character, Cassie, is stuck in that difficult stage between childhood and adulthood where she hasn’t yet discovered who she is and she doesn’t know much about the world outside her own familiar, and limited, home. She is impressionable, easily influenced by others, and reacts fearfully to others who are dissimilar to herself.

Who are those others? Her role models are the girls in the school she now attends—a private school where the popular girls wear expensive clothes and trendy hairstyles. She was taught to be fearful and distrust “toughs,” her term for gangbanger by her well-intentioned mother who fears for her safety. Cassie came to believe that you could judge others by their appearance and how well they fit her understanding of “normal.” The kids she meets dress differently, don’t fit the image of “pretty people” and hang around together. How easy it is for impressionable young people to let that distrust grow to include anyone who is different culturally or racially—or who’s tall, short, thin, or overweight.

Cassie’s world gets shaken when she’s sent to spend the summer with her father who lives in a small trailer in a campground in “Nowheresville” (a state park in Texas). Not only is the environment unfamiliar, but so, too, are the kids that inhabit it. Kids with skin tones different from her own. A short girl and obese boy, both who’ve been victims of body shaming. And they all wear grubby clothes and hang out together. So what does Cassie determine? They’re a gang, of course.

Wisely, Cassie’s levelheaded father puts her into a situation where she must be around these other kids by being in a summer training program for junior naturalists. Being exposed to an unfamiliar environment and diverse set of people, Cassie comes to understand that being different is okay. Empowering each other, these kids tackle solving a mystery, and in the process, right a wrong. They also come to respect each other’s differences—and accept who they are as individuals. By the end of the book, Cassie has evolved from being a follower to being a leader.

Cassie’s journey of self-exploration and coming to understand her own preconceptions is rewarded by discovering herself and in developing an independent sense of identity that includes respecting others. In other words, Cassie has discovered who she is, and her growth is revealed at the end of the story after she decides to change her name from Cassie to her grown-up name, Cassandra.

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will forever remember this book since I started reading it aloud to my kids in the car on our way to Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Amarillo, Texas- the same setting as this book. What a cool experience to hike the same trails we read about and truly picture the story while reading it!

[Serina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short, quick read. Rich, naive girl goes to stay with her dad for summer. Learns to not judge on appearance. I liked that her dad would have positive conversations about her day and didnt really baby her. Not really unique and not my style.

Long information unloaded pages at a time were tough to get through. Someone really interested in the Palo Duro Canyon will find this fascinating read. There were slight discrepancies with facts that were distracting for me. For example: book stated that"aguas" means dangerous, it's true "palo duro" can mean hard tree but really means hard stick, horned lizards are actually threatened, most cats if outside will run away, just become someone is a premie doesn't mean they don't grow. Weird things like than made me question things that seemed wrong such as lizard shooting blood from eye but then that was right! So to have so many facts that were somewhat true mixed in with completely accurate was disorienting. Stopped at page 90 of DNF

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huh?

This book was just okay for me, but the first odd thing that sticks out is the title. I didn't find it referenced anywhere in the book, and my only guess is that it reflects how the main character is discovering a new part of herself -- but if that is the case, then the title is waaayy deeper than the book.

[Teresa Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassandra's mother is heading to Europe, so she is going to have to spend the summer with her father. This is not an experience she's anticipating. It turns out her father is doing construction work in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas, and living in a camper. There are major adjustments for Cassie to make as she gradually finds that there are friends to be made here, and a mystery to be solved. This is a lovely book that includes lots of facts about flora and fauna of this desert region, as well as survival tips.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this, I did not care for it. I took a change and read it again and enjoyed it.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Living in a Winnebago trailer in Palo Duro Canyon is a far cry from the Austin neighborhood in which Cassie is spending the summer with her father. While her mother travels to Europe for computer training, Cassie has a chance to reconnect with her father. But she doesn't like what she sees at first. After all, he's given up his well-being job for one that involves some manual labor and moving around, and Cassie can't imagine being nowhere near a mall for the entire summer. Even his blind cat, Ti, is not what she expects. When she meets some of the other kids enrolled in the Junior Naturalist Program, she knows they would never be her friends back home. She suspects that X is in a gang, Bobby Ray is too out of shape for her tastes, and Glinda is just too interested in science. While Cassie gets caught up in trying to solve a mystery concerning some missing artifacts, she also begins to enjoy the new life she's living and finds herself. Late intermediate and early middle grade readers may like this book a lot, especially since its protagonist has lost her way and is being influenced back home by friends who may not have her best interests at heart. While dip-dyeing her hair might seem to be a small form of rebellion, it's also clear that Cassie cannot be herself--whomever that might be--around her friends back home, and that she leaps to wrong conclusions about others, including her father, all the time. As she finds her way during her summer in Palo Duro Canyon, she just might discover the inner resources to embrace her true nature. Although the events in the book are predictable, Cassie's notes about the mysteries that seem to surround her made me smile since she jumped to such outlandish conclusions so quickly. I particularly loved the blind cat and her realization that her friends back home would be unable to understand none of her summer experiences, which just might mean that they cannot begin to understand her very well--and maybe that's perfectly fine. The mysteries are resolved easily and in the expected ways, but many readers will be reassured by that fact.

[Lorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twelve year old Cassie discovers some important truths about herself when she is sent to live with her father whom she hasn’t seen in a while. After her parents’ divorce, he left his corporate life in the city for the job of a handyman at the remote Palo Duro State Park. Life in the park is very different than her life in the city. Many things aren’t as they seem as she unravels a mystery of some missing artifacts from a dig site in the park and in doing so has to learn that people are more than the preconceived stereotypes that she believes to be true.

Cassie’s family situation may seem familiar to children of divorced parents as she struggles to understand the changes her father and mother have undergone since the divorce and what this means for her as she navigates between the two very different worlds of each parent. I would recommend this book for purchase for any school or public library.

This book was provided by the publisher for professional review by SWON Libraries.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read that I think middle grade students would love. Cassandra has moved to a new place with her dad and is struggling to fit in to a new place and with new people she makes assumptions about before she gets to know them. However, this book really has no connections to social studies other than the fact that a main "character" of the book really is the setting and the geography of the national park they are in. I would put this in a classroom library, but not use it with instruction.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short chapters make this a fun and easy read. It's a story of a girl learning not to make assumptions about people before getting to know them. She also learns to take time to get to know herself. I look forward to hearing what my daughter thinks of this book when she is finished reading it.