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Missing Pieces
Jessie’s father has always been a missing piece of her life—but if she were to find him, how would he feel about her?
Jessie Wells thinks four is a good number. Things with four sides are sturdy and strong. A box, a chair, a room with four walls. But ever since the day Jessie’s dad left, Jessie, her mother, and Aunt Zis have been a triangle—three-sided, though solidly linked.
Jessie has heard the story: Her beautiful young mother had married a prince who disappeared one day, so she had raised her daughter with the help of Aunt Zis. But lately, the picture in Jessie’s mind seems incomplete. Who is James Wells? she wonders. He must be more than just a deadbeat dad who deserted his wife and child, and Jessie is determined to find out, even if she has to call every Wells in the phone book—and there are a lot of them.
But if Jessie finds her father and asks him all her questions, will she like the answers?
Jessie Wells thinks four is a good number. Things with four sides are sturdy and strong. A box, a chair, a room with four walls. But ever since the day Jessie’s dad left, Jessie, her mother, and Aunt Zis have been a triangle—three-sided, though solidly linked.
Jessie has heard the story: Her beautiful young mother had married a prince who disappeared one day, so she had raised her daughter with the help of Aunt Zis. But lately, the picture in Jessie’s mind seems incomplete. Who is James Wells? she wonders. He must be more than just a deadbeat dad who deserted his wife and child, and Jessie is determined to find out, even if she has to call every Wells in the phone book—and there are a lot of them.
But if Jessie finds her father and asks him all her questions, will she like the answers?
- GenresYoung Adult
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Norma Fox Mazer
58 books104 followersNorma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults.
She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.
New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."
Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.
Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...
She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.
New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."
Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.
Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 1, 2016
This book had so much potential. The writing, however, seemed to lack flare, that's what I am going to call it. I think I'm becoming a bit of a negative book reviewer here. Anyways, unfortunately, the author happens to be one of these writers with these ridiculous reasons for why something can't be. Further explanation, Jessie, is trying to find her father and decides to start calling all the 150 or so wells' in the phonebook (good luck on that). As she is calling to find him or anyone related, there are a handful of people that give her the excuse of they just moved here so, not possible. I'm sorry, you just moved here which means there is no way you are related? Because we all live in colonies with our families and no where else. I personally don't have any relatives that live in Texas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Or that, at any point in time they can't decide to move by me, live by one another or back to where they grew up . No,no,no that's not how it works. Maybe one person with that excuse, okay, but a bunch, ha, I don't think so. I gave it a 2 because the ending did nothing for me. She goes through all this trouble searching, fighting, and thinking of her father; to when he is finally in her grasp, nothing. All that, and you did nothing, absolutely nothing. I was left feeling cheated of a story and the ending it should of had.
October 9, 2015
Overall, I thought that this book was okay. Jessie Wells has been without a father since she was a baby. Now at 14 years old Jessie is on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of her dad because her mom and her aunt can't answer Jessie's questions about her dad. Missing pieces takes us on a journey and follows Jessie through her successes and failures throughout her adventure. To be honest I thought the story plot was pretty weak along with the plot twists. I also thought the the reading level was too low for me (a high school student) which is sometimes frustrating to read a book under your reading level.
March 29, 2020
Pretty good, quick read. I'm kind of sad about the ending, but at least she's more confident. I felt there were still missing pieces (no pun intended) to the story.
December 21, 2024
A sweet, emotive coming-of-age story. Flawed characters, realistic dialogue, & a satisfying ending.
August 6, 2016
Norma Fox Mazer, Missing Pieces (Avon, 1995)
The only reason I had any idea who Norma Fox Mazer was when I was going through a box of my wife's books from her junior high and high school years was that way back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, Mazer has co-written a teen thriller with husband Harry called The Solid Gold Kid. Looking back on it, the parts I remember about it were cheesy as hell (a romance subplot developing between two teens who have been abducted? Really? Even I wasn't that horny when I was 15!), but at the time, that book was, if you'll excuse the pun, solid gold. So when I found Missing Pieces in the stack she was planning on sending to Half-Price Books, I kept it out and gave it a go. I wasn't as enthused about it as School Library Journal (“...brilliant and subtle...”), but it does what it sets out to do, and that counts for something.
Plot: Jessie Wells, 14, has a good home life—mom, aunt (great-aunt, actually), boyfriend, etc.—but what's missing is dad. Her mother has spun stories about her absent father, and Jessie has embellished those in her head, but the fantasy is no longer enough; she gets the idea that it's time to track down her father and find out who he really is. Alarm bells are probably already going off in your head; this is teen fiction, after all. But despite warnings, both subtle and not, Jessie's determination never wavers. In fact, it gets stronger as Aunt Zis, one of the pieces of bedrock in Jessie's life, slides further into Alzheimer's. Jessie never verbalizes it, but could she be looking for her father as a substitute for the pseudo-parent she knows she is going to lose soon?
The tagline everyone likes to use for this book, also stolen from that SLJ piece (“a teen seeking her father and finding herself”), is cliché, almost painfully so, but I'm not sure I can find a better way to say that, either. So I'll go with it. (Cindy Darling Codell, the entire reviewer community owes you big time for that summary of the book.) w, like I said, I haven't read The Solid Gold Kid in a lotta years, but what I remember of that and what I experienced with this dovetail pretty nicely; Mazer is often as subtle as the proverbial velvet-clad herring to the face, especially when it comes to foreshadowing. This is not as big a problem as it may seem, because she balances the Douglas Sirk-esque melodrama with well-tuned characters placed in generally believable situations. It's a good book that could have been a great one with a lighter touch. ** ½
The only reason I had any idea who Norma Fox Mazer was when I was going through a box of my wife's books from her junior high and high school years was that way back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, Mazer has co-written a teen thriller with husband Harry called The Solid Gold Kid. Looking back on it, the parts I remember about it were cheesy as hell (a romance subplot developing between two teens who have been abducted? Really? Even I wasn't that horny when I was 15!), but at the time, that book was, if you'll excuse the pun, solid gold. So when I found Missing Pieces in the stack she was planning on sending to Half-Price Books, I kept it out and gave it a go. I wasn't as enthused about it as School Library Journal (“...brilliant and subtle...”), but it does what it sets out to do, and that counts for something.
Plot: Jessie Wells, 14, has a good home life—mom, aunt (great-aunt, actually), boyfriend, etc.—but what's missing is dad. Her mother has spun stories about her absent father, and Jessie has embellished those in her head, but the fantasy is no longer enough; she gets the idea that it's time to track down her father and find out who he really is. Alarm bells are probably already going off in your head; this is teen fiction, after all. But despite warnings, both subtle and not, Jessie's determination never wavers. In fact, it gets stronger as Aunt Zis, one of the pieces of bedrock in Jessie's life, slides further into Alzheimer's. Jessie never verbalizes it, but could she be looking for her father as a substitute for the pseudo-parent she knows she is going to lose soon?
The tagline everyone likes to use for this book, also stolen from that SLJ piece (“a teen seeking her father and finding herself”), is cliché, almost painfully so, but I'm not sure I can find a better way to say that, either. So I'll go with it. (Cindy Darling Codell, the entire reviewer community owes you big time for that summary of the book.) w, like I said, I haven't read The Solid Gold Kid in a lotta years, but what I remember of that and what I experienced with this dovetail pretty nicely; Mazer is often as subtle as the proverbial velvet-clad herring to the face, especially when it comes to foreshadowing. This is not as big a problem as it may seem, because she balances the Douglas Sirk-esque melodrama with well-tuned characters placed in generally believable situations. It's a good book that could have been a great one with a lighter touch. ** ½
January 26, 2010
You know what? I'm lucky because most of the books I've read have been truly excellent, and helped me on this crazy journey called life. This is one of those books. I grew up without a dad and it had a very profound effect on me. When I read this book, I felt less alone. I felt like FINALLY somebody gets me. I still have my copy from over ten years ago. I don't even know how many times I reread it. I wrote book reports about it. It's forever a part of my soul. And that's all I have to say about that.
January 3, 2009
The main character of this book is a teenage girl who has grown up without a father. He deserted her family when she was just a baby. She is interested in finding out more about him, but her mother doesn't want to give her any information, so she takes matters into her own hands.
The characters are barely fleshed out, and the plot is weak. Yawn.
The characters are barely fleshed out, and the plot is weak. Yawn.
July 29, 2009
This is a book aobut a girl who's dad walks out on her and she wants to leanr aobut hikm, Really intriguing, read it in a day
August 12, 2013
Much preferred the story of the friendship triangle between Jessie, Meadow and Diane to the rest of this fairly standard "problem story" about a girl who doesn't know her father.
May 11, 2024
A really great book about a young girl's search to find out who she is while trying to discover who her father is.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews