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Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe
A Mississippi ghost town and an art mystery combine!
How far would you go to find something that might not even exist?
All her life, Cricket's mama has told her stories about a secret room painted by a mysterious artist. Now Mama's run off, and Cricket thinks the room might be the answer to getting her to come back. If it exists. And if she can find it.
Cricket's only clue is a coin from a grown-over ghost town in the woods. So with her daddy's old guidebook and a coat full of snacks stolen from the Cash 'n' Carry, Cricket runs away to find the room. Surviving in the woods isn't easy. While Cricket camps out in an old tree house and looks for clues, she meets the last resident of the ghost town, encounters a poetry-loving dog (who just might hold a key to part of the puzzle), and discovers that sometimes you have to get a little lost . . . to really find your way.
RUNNING TIME ⇒ 4hrs. and 9mins.
©2018 Jo Watson Hackl (P)2020 Tantor
How far would you go to find something that might not even exist?
All her life, Cricket's mama has told her stories about a secret room painted by a mysterious artist. Now Mama's run off, and Cricket thinks the room might be the answer to getting her to come back. If it exists. And if she can find it.
Cricket's only clue is a coin from a grown-over ghost town in the woods. So with her daddy's old guidebook and a coat full of snacks stolen from the Cash 'n' Carry, Cricket runs away to find the room. Surviving in the woods isn't easy. While Cricket camps out in an old tree house and looks for clues, she meets the last resident of the ghost town, encounters a poetry-loving dog (who just might hold a key to part of the puzzle), and discovers that sometimes you have to get a little lost . . . to really find your way.
RUNNING TIME ⇒ 4hrs. and 9mins.
©2018 Jo Watson Hackl (P)2020 Tantor
Audible Audio
First published July 10, 2018
96 people are currently reading
5664 people want to read
About the author
Jo Watson Hackl
1 book116 followersI am the author of SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYBE, which won the Southern Book Prize and is an Indie Next and Okra Pick. The book takes readers on an adventure with 12-year-old Cricket in an overgrown Mississippi ghost town as she tries to survive on her own and solve a clue trail left by an eccentric artist with a logic all his own, all to try to find a secret room that may or may not exist. Cricket must use her wits and just a smidgen of luck to live off the land and solve the clues. With the help of a poetry-loving dog, maybe, just maybe, she can do it. The book includes curriculum tie-ins to art, history, geography, literature, mathematics, and science. I am also the Founder of Outdoorosity.org, a free resource for inspiration and information about nature. I love to do school visits and to work with libraries and schools on ways to incorporate nature into the programming. I have free resources for educators and other readers at www.JoHackl.com including:
- A Book Club menu (complete with how-to videos) and Book Club Questions;
- An interactive map of the real places that inspired parts of the book;
- An interactive clue trail you can solve using the things you learned in the book; readers who solve the clue trail receive a printable clue solver’s badge;
- “Cricket Challenges” to take your reading adventures into your own world;
- An Activity Guide;
- Printable Bookmarks;
- A “Hidden Object” search with items from the clue trail; and
- Resources for educators including lesson plans.
You can find me online at @JoHackl (Twitter); @JoHackl/ (Instagram) and at @Jo Watson Hackl Author (Facebook).
- A Book Club menu (complete with how-to videos) and Book Club Questions;
- An interactive map of the real places that inspired parts of the book;
- An interactive clue trail you can solve using the things you learned in the book; readers who solve the clue trail receive a printable clue solver’s badge;
- “Cricket Challenges” to take your reading adventures into your own world;
- An Activity Guide;
- Printable Bookmarks;
- A “Hidden Object” search with items from the clue trail; and
- Resources for educators including lesson plans.
You can find me online at @JoHackl (Twitter); @JoHackl/ (Instagram) and at @Jo Watson Hackl Author (Facebook).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews
January 14, 2018
Review copy provided by NetGalley
Another tremendous piece of realistic fiction about a girl dealing with parental loss and family instability. Cricket is an introspective protagonist, a girl who manages to make sense of what most would consider an overwhelmingly challenging family life, and her story is somehow equal parts sad and hopeful. Her resiliency is really the thread that will pull readers through her hardest moments.
She has an unwavering belief in her mother's ability to overcome her struggles with mental health related issues seemingly related to fairly severe depression, and to return for her. She spends much of the story in the woods of an old ghost town that she sort of ran away to after being forgotten at the grocery store by her Aunt Belinda.
Additionally, there is a Disney-esque sidekick cricket that accompanies her on her journey after they meet in the grocery store in a scene that brought to mind Because Of Winn Dixie. Thankfully, Cricket names her miniature friend Charlene, which avoids the problematic likelihood of confusing the two characters.
Cricket is in a race against time to solve a mystery left behind by her mother before the day her mother hinted that she would return to finish an elaborate headstone for her own mother, and Cricket is clearly up to the challenge, though it certainly involves a fair amount of perilous situations. Through all this, she does happen to meet the final essential character to the plot, an unusual older woman, Mrs. V, living at the edge of the woods just when Cricket needs her most.
Strangely, this reclusive woman who has only a poetry loving dog for companionship, turns out to be the most caring, reliable adult Cricket has to help her. The story unfolds nicely with Mrs. V around, with Cricket managing to work out a lot of internal conflict while under her care. By the time the big day of reckoning rolls around, readers will be undoubtedly hopeful that Cricket might just get the kind of happy ending a child deserves, even if it isn't the resolution she'd originally imagined for herself.
Endnotes indicate that this book has several unexpected connections to real Mississippi history involving an actual ghost town and the life of the painter, Walter Anderson. I was wildly impressed. This would be well received by fans of Sharon Creech, Deborah Wiles, or Barbara O'Connor, as well as many other talented authors of the genre. Great book to read aloud and discuss in a classroom.
Another tremendous piece of realistic fiction about a girl dealing with parental loss and family instability. Cricket is an introspective protagonist, a girl who manages to make sense of what most would consider an overwhelmingly challenging family life, and her story is somehow equal parts sad and hopeful. Her resiliency is really the thread that will pull readers through her hardest moments.
She has an unwavering belief in her mother's ability to overcome her struggles with mental health related issues seemingly related to fairly severe depression, and to return for her. She spends much of the story in the woods of an old ghost town that she sort of ran away to after being forgotten at the grocery store by her Aunt Belinda.
Additionally, there is a Disney-esque sidekick cricket that accompanies her on her journey after they meet in the grocery store in a scene that brought to mind Because Of Winn Dixie. Thankfully, Cricket names her miniature friend Charlene, which avoids the problematic likelihood of confusing the two characters.
Cricket is in a race against time to solve a mystery left behind by her mother before the day her mother hinted that she would return to finish an elaborate headstone for her own mother, and Cricket is clearly up to the challenge, though it certainly involves a fair amount of perilous situations. Through all this, she does happen to meet the final essential character to the plot, an unusual older woman, Mrs. V, living at the edge of the woods just when Cricket needs her most.
Strangely, this reclusive woman who has only a poetry loving dog for companionship, turns out to be the most caring, reliable adult Cricket has to help her. The story unfolds nicely with Mrs. V around, with Cricket managing to work out a lot of internal conflict while under her care. By the time the big day of reckoning rolls around, readers will be undoubtedly hopeful that Cricket might just get the kind of happy ending a child deserves, even if it isn't the resolution she'd originally imagined for herself.
Endnotes indicate that this book has several unexpected connections to real Mississippi history involving an actual ghost town and the life of the painter, Walter Anderson. I was wildly impressed. This would be well received by fans of Sharon Creech, Deborah Wiles, or Barbara O'Connor, as well as many other talented authors of the genre. Great book to read aloud and discuss in a classroom.
April 8, 2018
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe but Jo Watson Hackl was an amazing read about a girl named Cricket who has been abandoned on more than one occasion. She has grown up with a mother who has mental health issues, her father who’s job requires him to travel for extended periods of time for work, a grandmother who has recently passed away, and an aunt who has her own problems. Cricket’s father taught her how to survive in the outdoors and introduced her to an abandoned town where they explore. When Cricket’s aunt “accidentally” leaves Cricket behind in the grocery store Cricket takes the opportunity to run away to this town. While she is there she becomes more self-aware and she comes to understand her situation better. She uncovers a mystery and solves it. She makes new friends. Overall, the time she spends in the abandoned town helps her to grow into a young woman. And while the story is realistic enough that it doesn’t wrap everything up in a nice pretty package at the end you can see that Cricket will be ok. She is a strong, young woman. This story was intriguing and well written, including the descriptions of the scenery. I couldn’t put it down.
July 9, 2018
Read these opening paragraphs and hear voice oozing out of every sentence:
"Turns out, it's easier than you might think to sneak out of town smuggling a live cricket, three pocketfuls of jerky, and two bags of half-paid-for-merchandies from Thelma's Cash 'n' Carry grocery store.
The hard part was getting up the guts to go.
It happened like this: There I was in Thelma's produce section, running my fingers up and down a bundle of collards. Collards never did make for good eating, but I was wondering if maybe they were some kind of sign that it was time for me to skedaddle. Collards always reminded me of Mama. She used to make me drawing paper out of collards, sumac seeds, dryer lint, and newspaper Daddy chopped up in his wood chipper. She plunked things in her paper the way other people stuck things in scrapbooks. Thread from the hem of her wedding dress, a four-leaf clover, Daddy's first gray hair. Mama's paper held so much life, it made my drawings pop off the page.
That was the kind of Mama and Daddy I used to have. (p.1-2)"
Who wouldn't keep reading after a hook like that?
Soon the reader discovers that Cricket is on a quest to find Mama who ran off and left her with Aunt Belinda. Taking a cricket who she names Charlene, a little bit of food, her father's pocketknife, a doogaloo, and a small notebook full of Mama's paper, she sets off.
By nightfall she gets to the woods near her family's property. Here is a setting description that I used in my writing classes this summer: "The woods smelled like a hundred and fifty years of dark. A goose-bumpy ghost-town kind of dark."(p. 19)
She climbs into the tree house that "smelled like cedar, clean and wild," which her father built before he died. There, she reviews a letter addressed to her mother indicating her Grandmother's tombstone was to be placed on March 1-- in exactly eleven days. On it her mother had scrawled before, "I'm off looking for my birds." This brings back memories of all the times her mother left to find the "Bird Room" so she could prove it was real.
With her few supplies, Charlene to keep her company, hope, and a pocketful of clues, Cricket begins her quest--but first she has to learn how to survive living outdoors.
Like all good stories, Cricket's search has several twists and turns that test her gumption: raccoons steal her food, snow, and a copperhead bite. The last is too much for her to deal with alone and she seeks help from Miss V., an eccentric woman who provides more answers about her mother and the bird room than Cricket could have dreamt of. At the same time that the story moves forward, the author provides bits and pieces of backstory that help put the puzzle pieces together.
SMACK DAB is not only a story of outdoor survival or putting puzzle pieces together. It is also a story of a young person coming to grips with her mother's mental illness. Beautifully woven into the text is Cricket's slow realization that her mother's behavior was eccentric, unexplainable, and unstable. Like Laura in CRAZY by Linda Phillips, Cricket begins to see a different picture:
What about all the sharp looks in the grocery store? The looks at Mama. The looks at me.
If my mama was crazy, just what exactly did that make me?
The floorboards felt like they were shifting. Nothing felt solid. I grabbed hold of the wall.
Is this what going crazy feels like? (p. 141)
After I finished reading SMACK DAB I told Jo, "When I grow up I want to be like Cricket." Readers young and old will be inspired by Cricket's courage and spunk--as well as her love for her mother and the truth. And of course, also for her love for the outdoors.
ARC giveaway ends on July 13 at carolbaldwanblog.blogspot.com
August 22, 2018
I'm not sure that I read the same book as the other reviewers on GR. I thought this was very slow, sad, and implausible. I did not much enjoy Cricket (the main human character), who spends the entire novel preparing to be reunited with her mother, after fleeing into the woods from her Aunt. The book lacked structure and cohesiveness, perhaps because it was dealing with some aspects of mental illness and loneliness. Not for me.
July 9, 2018
The setting for Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Hackl is a ghost town smack dab in the middle of Mississippi with bodock* tours and a personal library collection featuring Mississippi writer Willie Morris’s book North Toward Home. Even before I read the author’s notes, one of the unusual characters called up a familiar image of famed Mississippi native artist Walter Anderson.
The first line promises a good read. “Turns out, it’s easier than you might think to sneak out of town smuggling a live cricket, three pocketfuls of jerky, and two bags of half-paid-for merchandise from Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry grocery store.”
Three events in rapid succession – the death of Cricket’s grandmother, the disappearance of her mother, and the death of her father – send her on the trail of a mysterious bird room her mother described. She believes that finding it is the secret to having her mother return to stay. Survival in nature, unexplained clues, and an inscrutable riddle keep her looking, sustained by the hope that her mother will keep two promises she made before she disappeared. Cricket has eleven days before her mother’s promised return while her only help in the wild comes from her cricket, a strange hermit woman she calls Miss V., and a poetry loving dog. I liked Cricket’s perception when she sees Miss V.’s progress as they dig together. “It’s downright embarrassing to get outworked by somebody six times your age. I guess you can’t always tell strong from the outside.”
I read this delightful middle grade novel that has its book birthday tomorrow on July 10 in an advance reading copy from Net Galley. Not to give too much away, I can tell you the promise of a good read in its first line is more trustworthy than the ones Cricket’s mama made. Mississippians will find themselves right at home in this story, and if you’re not from here, you will get a delightful and accurate depiction.
*Also if you’re not from here, the bodock is also known as the osage orange and is sometimes characterized as a tree and sometimes as a shrub.
The first line promises a good read. “Turns out, it’s easier than you might think to sneak out of town smuggling a live cricket, three pocketfuls of jerky, and two bags of half-paid-for merchandise from Thelma’s Cash ‘n’ Carry grocery store.”
Three events in rapid succession – the death of Cricket’s grandmother, the disappearance of her mother, and the death of her father – send her on the trail of a mysterious bird room her mother described. She believes that finding it is the secret to having her mother return to stay. Survival in nature, unexplained clues, and an inscrutable riddle keep her looking, sustained by the hope that her mother will keep two promises she made before she disappeared. Cricket has eleven days before her mother’s promised return while her only help in the wild comes from her cricket, a strange hermit woman she calls Miss V., and a poetry loving dog. I liked Cricket’s perception when she sees Miss V.’s progress as they dig together. “It’s downright embarrassing to get outworked by somebody six times your age. I guess you can’t always tell strong from the outside.”
I read this delightful middle grade novel that has its book birthday tomorrow on July 10 in an advance reading copy from Net Galley. Not to give too much away, I can tell you the promise of a good read in its first line is more trustworthy than the ones Cricket’s mama made. Mississippians will find themselves right at home in this story, and if you’re not from here, you will get a delightful and accurate depiction.
*Also if you’re not from here, the bodock is also known as the osage orange and is sometimes characterized as a tree and sometimes as a shrub.
June 14, 2018
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe
by Jo Watson Hackl
Random House Children's
Random House Books for Young Readers
Children's Fiction
Pub Date 10 Jul 2018
I am reviewing a copy of Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe through Random House Publishers and Netgalley:
Cricket’s Mom has told her all her life about a secret room that was painted by a mysterious artist. Her Mother has run off and her Daddy died but Cricket thinks that secret room might be the answer to getting her to come back home. The problem is she's not even sure if it exists and if it does exist if she can even find it.
The only clue Cricket has is a coin from a ghost town that has been grown over in the woods. She heads off with her Daddy's guidebook and a coat full of snacks she stole from the Cash And Carry. Cricket runs away to the woods to find the room but surviving the woods is not easy. Cricket camps out in an old tree house in the woods where she meets the last residence of the ghost town, encounters a poetry loving dog and discovers that sometimes getting a little lost is the only way to find your way.
I give Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
April 7, 2018
Even though written for youth, this book is a page turner for adults as well. I was quickly captivated by Cricket and her passionate search for her mother, and could not put this book down. In telling this coming-of-age story, the author brings to life the details of a young girl's experience in the deep south with such vibrancy that the descriptions become palpable. Its focus on nature is a breath of fresh air in today's world of electronics. I recommend this book to youth as well as to adults who want to share a heartwarming journey with their young reader.
June 7, 2020
I adored this book!
It reminded me so much of the novels I read as a kid. The ones you couldn't wait to get back to... after you finished your homework or when you were supposed to be going to sleep for the night. A way to escape and have an adventure.
The young protagonist, Cricket, is such a great character... Unique, intelligent, with a strong, clear voice.
The plot is fun to read and wonderful. Cricket's adventures are well written, immersive and interesting. A great book to curl up with and get lost in. My grandchildren loved it as well.
Highly recommend.
It reminded me so much of the novels I read as a kid. The ones you couldn't wait to get back to... after you finished your homework or when you were supposed to be going to sleep for the night. A way to escape and have an adventure.
The young protagonist, Cricket, is such a great character... Unique, intelligent, with a strong, clear voice.
The plot is fun to read and wonderful. Cricket's adventures are well written, immersive and interesting. A great book to curl up with and get lost in. My grandchildren loved it as well.
Highly recommend.
March 3, 2018
If you feel you don't have what you want, your friends won't listen or your parents don't seem to care about you, read this book! I couldn't put it down and was so drawn to Cricket's character and her ability to look at the bright side. Through her sometimes very sad story, I admired how she never gave up and learned how to solve problems on the fly. She had to conquer her fears and deal with adversity, but in the end made her own happy ending. I can hardly wait for the next book!
February 12, 2019
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl will quickly draw the reader into the unusual and sometimes puzzling world of Cricket, the adolescent main character. Cricket is immediately a likeable and entertaining girl whose dysfunctional family is challenging, to say the least. After the first few chapters, the reader sympathizes with Cricket who “runs away,” or actually escapes, the craziness (literally) of her family, her depressing life and her uncertain future. Hackl tells the story of Cricket’s odyssey to find clues that will help her understand her mother’s disappearance and disturbing fixation on the mysterious “Bird Room” from her past. During Cricket’s journey she begins to understand the causes of her mother’s mental instability, but she also has an amazing adventure and discovers her own inner strength to accept and embrace a new life.
Jo Watson Hackl’s writing style is engaging. As an English teacher, I love and recommend her writing, and I think that this book has an appeal that will go beyond age groups and/or gender. The teacher in me really appreciated the repeated references to Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg quotes but not in an obnoxious, “educational” way. The main character Cricket is a girl, but Hackl’s use of point of view does not limit the story to that of a female character. The story could just as easily have been told from the point of view of a male character, and boys would enjoy this book just as much as girls will. Hackl’s use of Southern dialogue will endear this book to anyone who has lived in the South, finds the South charming in an entertaining way, or who just finds humor in words and phrases like “skedaddle” or “a goose-bumpy ghost-town kind of dark” to describe the woods at night, or in descriptions like that of Cricket’s aunt’s “Trans-Am red fingernail polish” or the color of Cricket’s hair as “always a summer away from being blond.”
Who doesn’t enjoy a book with an appealing main character, a quest to solve a mystery and an engaging story of the wonders of understanding the growth from childhood to adolescence, with a touch of fantasy thrown in for good reading. Jo Watson Hackl’s book Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe should become a favorite of adolescents, but its appeal will surely go beyond this age group.
Jo Watson Hackl’s writing style is engaging. As an English teacher, I love and recommend her writing, and I think that this book has an appeal that will go beyond age groups and/or gender. The teacher in me really appreciated the repeated references to Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg quotes but not in an obnoxious, “educational” way. The main character Cricket is a girl, but Hackl’s use of point of view does not limit the story to that of a female character. The story could just as easily have been told from the point of view of a male character, and boys would enjoy this book just as much as girls will. Hackl’s use of Southern dialogue will endear this book to anyone who has lived in the South, finds the South charming in an entertaining way, or who just finds humor in words and phrases like “skedaddle” or “a goose-bumpy ghost-town kind of dark” to describe the woods at night, or in descriptions like that of Cricket’s aunt’s “Trans-Am red fingernail polish” or the color of Cricket’s hair as “always a summer away from being blond.”
Who doesn’t enjoy a book with an appealing main character, a quest to solve a mystery and an engaging story of the wonders of understanding the growth from childhood to adolescence, with a touch of fantasy thrown in for good reading. Jo Watson Hackl’s book Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe should become a favorite of adolescents, but its appeal will surely go beyond this age group.
June 20, 2018
I had to make myself pick up the book and finish the last chapter, because I just didn’t want it to end! This magical book is a coming-of-age story about a young girl, Cricket, who is wise beyond her years. The book is delightful and charming and just the right mix of a day dream and a mystery. We are reminded to slow down and look for the beauty around us, one of Crickett’s lessons from her mother. As a mother of 2 young girls, I was reminded to encourage my girls to find their own path, as Cricket did. I believe that art tells a story, and Jo Hackl represents this theme so well in her book.
I delighted in sharing Jo Hackl’s book with my 8-year-old daughter who wrote the following review herself:
Smack dab in the middle of maybe is my favorite book! It’s an awesome book because it makes you feel how hard it is to not have a real family. In this story the main character is a girl named Cricket, and all Cricket has ever wanted was her mama and daddy back. Cricket is the type of girl that is adventurous and who doesn’t mind getting her hands messy. Cricket grew up with her mama and daddy like a normal child at first. When her mama was little, her dad worked on houses, and her mama liked to go with him. On her birthday she went to a house and found a man panting in one of the rooms. When she was older she told Cricket about the room and how it was alive, and they called it the bird room because it had a tanager bird in it. She told him that it was her birthday and he gave her a coin. And it was a start to a clue. She held on to that coin until Cricket was born. But somehow Cricket ends up at her aunt Belinda’s house without her mama or her daddy, just a bunch of boys. And this story is how Cricket finds all the clues to the bird room! Once you start to read this book, you can’t stop! In my opinion if you are a fun and adventurous, then you would love this book! Read this book to find out more about Cricket and her mama and daddy. - Kate (Age 8)
I delighted in sharing Jo Hackl’s book with my 8-year-old daughter who wrote the following review herself:
Smack dab in the middle of maybe is my favorite book! It’s an awesome book because it makes you feel how hard it is to not have a real family. In this story the main character is a girl named Cricket, and all Cricket has ever wanted was her mama and daddy back. Cricket is the type of girl that is adventurous and who doesn’t mind getting her hands messy. Cricket grew up with her mama and daddy like a normal child at first. When her mama was little, her dad worked on houses, and her mama liked to go with him. On her birthday she went to a house and found a man panting in one of the rooms. When she was older she told Cricket about the room and how it was alive, and they called it the bird room because it had a tanager bird in it. She told him that it was her birthday and he gave her a coin. And it was a start to a clue. She held on to that coin until Cricket was born. But somehow Cricket ends up at her aunt Belinda’s house without her mama or her daddy, just a bunch of boys. And this story is how Cricket finds all the clues to the bird room! Once you start to read this book, you can’t stop! In my opinion if you are a fun and adventurous, then you would love this book! Read this book to find out more about Cricket and her mama and daddy. - Kate (Age 8)
May 29, 2018
My 11 year old daughter and I spent a rainy Saturday morning reading Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe and it was a delight! We began the journey with Cricket and just couldn't put the book down until we found out if she was able to reunite with her Mama and discover the secrets of the Bird Room. Jo Hackl deserves 5 stars to write a book that captures both the young and the young at heart in this way.
The novel follows the adventures of Cricket as she searches for her mother. By following the clues to the Bird Room, Cricket discovers her own strength and power as well as meets some wonderful friends along the way. The book deals with complicated issues such as mental illness but it is delivered in a format that young readers can understand. Cricket not only learns about herself, but her journey provides her with a greater sense of empathy for those around her and those who are no longer with her.
Hackl brings such a sense of place to her writing. You can clearly picture the abandoned town and the Bird Room as the sun sets through the window. Her writing speaks to the importance of place and nature. I have never been to Mississippi, but after reading this book, I feel that I have! Not only does the author portray the local natural world, but nature is often discovered through art and the lens of the artist.
This novel will be loved by all kids - independent girls ready to make their mark; boys who love survival stories; and young artists who feel that their art tells a story. I encourage you to read this wonderful story and share it with a young friend who is ready for a new adventure!
The novel follows the adventures of Cricket as she searches for her mother. By following the clues to the Bird Room, Cricket discovers her own strength and power as well as meets some wonderful friends along the way. The book deals with complicated issues such as mental illness but it is delivered in a format that young readers can understand. Cricket not only learns about herself, but her journey provides her with a greater sense of empathy for those around her and those who are no longer with her.
Hackl brings such a sense of place to her writing. You can clearly picture the abandoned town and the Bird Room as the sun sets through the window. Her writing speaks to the importance of place and nature. I have never been to Mississippi, but after reading this book, I feel that I have! Not only does the author portray the local natural world, but nature is often discovered through art and the lens of the artist.
This novel will be loved by all kids - independent girls ready to make their mark; boys who love survival stories; and young artists who feel that their art tells a story. I encourage you to read this wonderful story and share it with a young friend who is ready for a new adventure!
April 10, 2018
Jo Watson Hackl’s debut novel is a vicarious journey with her main character, Cricket, as she ventures into an unknown part of southern woods to prove her missing mama’s stories are real. Throughout this story, the reader is aware of the author’s firsthand knowledge and obvious love of the cultural richness of the region. She intersperses the writing with believable conversations and expressions, a tangle of clues, driven with snippets of poetry, nature in abundance, and fictionalized accounts of an eccentric artist that create the fabric of the story. As Cricket faces the struggles of surviving alone in the woods, finding and interpreting clues, she perseveres armed with hope and resourcefulness. Her resilience presents an example for readers of a young girl’s ability to overcome obstacles. I especially appreciated the way Miss V’s care and wisdom contribute to Cricket’s transformation, reminding us the value of positive, necessary connections with others. This entertaining and touching book will appeal to all young readers who will recognize and understand the inevitable pains and acceptance that are a natural part of the growing up process.
As a retired educator, I remember the delight in finding authentic literature that met the varied needs and interests of my students. I would have loved using this book in my classroom as an abundant teaching tool, but more importantly, as an opportunity to expose my students to a book they could love and make their own. I loved it as an adult from a purely enjoyable perspective of a reader who loves personal growth stories, as a fellow bird lover, and fan of Emily Dickinson’s poetry….yes, “Hope is the thing with feathers.”
As a retired educator, I remember the delight in finding authentic literature that met the varied needs and interests of my students. I would have loved using this book in my classroom as an abundant teaching tool, but more importantly, as an opportunity to expose my students to a book they could love and make their own. I loved it as an adult from a purely enjoyable perspective of a reader who loves personal growth stories, as a fellow bird lover, and fan of Emily Dickinson’s poetry….yes, “Hope is the thing with feathers.”
May 8, 2018
“Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe” is a delightful coming of age story for our times. The characters and places are colorful, familiar and amazingly real from a reader’s imagination. The main character, Cricket, grows up from a child to a young adult in 48 short chapters. The life lessons, adventures and recognition of the importance of family both near and far is a delightful assurance that in life family ties may bind, break, be restored and reimagined, yet through it all will leave us better than before the start of life’s journey.
Jo Hackl has written an adventure book that will appeal to all readers. Her blossoming character, Cricket, allows us, from the comfort of our warm, safe homes, to travel the woods, cross the streams, climb the trees to view the world from a child’s perspective and allow the reader to relive the unavoidable pain that is a part of our growing up.
I can’t wait for the next chapter in the life of Cricket. I’m sure there is another adventure to be had just beyond the tree line.
Jo Hackl has written an adventure book that will appeal to all readers. Her blossoming character, Cricket, allows us, from the comfort of our warm, safe homes, to travel the woods, cross the streams, climb the trees to view the world from a child’s perspective and allow the reader to relive the unavoidable pain that is a part of our growing up.
I can’t wait for the next chapter in the life of Cricket. I’m sure there is another adventure to be had just beyond the tree line.
June 13, 2018
Jo Watson Hackl interweaves the themes of loss and resilience beautifully throughout this novel for young readers (ages 8-12). Cricket, the main character, grapples with family issues of death, abandonment, and mental health. The author wraps these difficult topics within a mystery so that the reader wants to see what’s next. The tension of these topics is balanced by the fortitude and resilience demonstrated by Cricket throughout the novel. She is a survivor – she survives living in the woods, unexpected circumstances, and disappointment. Throughout the novel, the reader will be captivated by the vivid, intricate details of the whimsical “bird room” along with the other parts of this Mississippi town. At the end of the novel, I was truly satisfied because even though the situation did not work out as the protagonist desired, it still showed that she would be able to have a fulfilling life. What I really appreciated is that the author was able to handle complex and sensitive topics with such adeptness and charm.
April 7, 2018
After only two pages, I was hooked and pulling for Cricket, the precocious protagonist and voice of Jo Watson Hackl's wonderful debut. Readers will love keeping up with Cricket on her fast-paced and upbeat adventure through the deep Mississippi woods, described in Hackl’s rich and vivid prose (“The woods smelled like a hundred and fifty years of dark.”). As a father, I couldn’t get enough of the incisive lessons that Cricket remembered from her own father (“Daddy used to say that if you stick to suburbs and sidewalks your whole life, dirt all looks the same.”) and those she discovered on her own (“I guess you can’t always tell strong from the outside.”). Cricket’s clue-following journey, her triumphant discoveries, and the clear-eyed lessons that follow will fill you with warmth and remind you of the beauty of resilience, the power of optimism, and the pull of family, imperfections and all. A terrific read for all ages.
June 18, 2018
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe is full of so many good things, it’s hard to know where to start. Of course, the first thing to like is Crickett, the plucky and determined protagonist who is in search of a mystical room with paintings of birds that come alive. Her resourcefulness would make any Girl Scout proud. She uses the skills taught by both her parents to make her way through the forest and ruins of an abandoned town, the real Electric Mills, MS, in her quest. This is a book that will have the inquisitive reader looking further into the myriad references to poetry, art and nature that are found throughout the book. Or…a person could just enjoy it on its own. I enjoyed it twice. As I do with most mysteries, I raced through the first reading to see how it would end, then went back a second time to savor this story of hope all the more. I can’t wait for my granddaughter to read it.
December 27, 2017
This intriguing mystery has all a middle schooler longs for in adventure, being understood by family, needing to feel independent, discovering the wonders of nature, realization of one's gifts, and self- validation. As a science teacher and Nature guide, I have seen the difference a day in the woods makes in a child. The experiences of twelve-year old Cricket in the fast-paces pages of these short chapters are bound to captivate any child and encourage him or her to explore the natural world. I recommend it to parents and grandparents seeking meaningful ways to connect with the children in their lives. It is a beacon of hope in the quest to get students to put down their screens and relate to an exciting natural world while giving positive examples of understanding adults in their lives.
July 10, 2018
Jo Watson Hackl's SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYBE is littered with realism. Cricket is believable as a character as are all the other folks in this debut novel. Cricket pulls off a stay in the woods that would intimidate most modern 12 year olds. She has been taught survival tactics by her late father and is well on her way to finding strategies to deal with more grown-up life as it comes.
I found the end notes regarding Ms. Hackl's hands-on research for this novel show a true dedication to authentic writing. Her information regarding the town setting and real-life artist Bob showed a talent for using the right (and real) ingredients to make this tasty novel .
Ms. Hackl's use of poetry from both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson may have young readers scrambling to find their parents' college anthologies in the attic.
I found the end notes regarding Ms. Hackl's hands-on research for this novel show a true dedication to authentic writing. Her information regarding the town setting and real-life artist Bob showed a talent for using the right (and real) ingredients to make this tasty novel .
Ms. Hackl's use of poetry from both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson may have young readers scrambling to find their parents' college anthologies in the attic.
September 6, 2018
I got this book for my granddaughter, but I read it first. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did. I love the author’s way with words. “The woods smelled like a hundred and fifty years of dark. A goose-bumpy ghost-town kind of dark.” I’ll post her review after she reads it
July 6, 2018
I wish I had met Cricket when I was her age! What an inspiration she is!
July 9, 2018
Jo Watson Hackl’s book, Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe, is an imaginative adventure following a young girl along her journey of mystery, survival, and healing. Set in the thick woods of an abandoned ghost town, Smack Dab immediately draws you into a delightful story of intrigue and excitement. When the lead character, Cricket, is thrust into a challenging season of life by losing both parents - her father dies unexpectedly and her mother runs away, dealing with her own grief and mental instability- Cricket is left in the marginal care of her colorful Aunt Belinda. Tenacious and creative, Cricket sets out on a mission to find the elusive “Bird Room,” a place of beauty and escape which her mother often talked about. Considered to be unstable and untrustworthy, Cricket’s mother was assumed by others to have invented the room in her own eccentric and artistic mind. In order to restore her mother’s reputation and inspire her to return home to stay, Cricket is determined to find the magical room. Along the way, Cricket learns much about her own resourceful and brave spirit and begins to further appreciate her inherited artistic gifts.
Dealing with themes of mental illness, coming of age, abandonment, and grief, Smack Dab carries strong overthemes of compassion and forgiveness. This is a wonderful read for dreamers of all ages, especially juvenile and young adult. For all who experience healing through adventure, nature, and art, this book will find a special place. Smack Dab is a wonderful read and terrific gift for any young friend.
Dealing with themes of mental illness, coming of age, abandonment, and grief, Smack Dab carries strong overthemes of compassion and forgiveness. This is a wonderful read for dreamers of all ages, especially juvenile and young adult. For all who experience healing through adventure, nature, and art, this book will find a special place. Smack Dab is a wonderful read and terrific gift for any young friend.
September 24, 2018
She’s bright, resourceful, a little feisty and completely loveable – Cricket has plenty of girl power in this beautifully written book filled with mystery and adventure. Readers young and old will find inspiration in Cricket’s fierce determination as she follows a mysterious clue trail with her pet cricket, Charlene. Author Jo Hackl brings together local art, the outdoors, and history through explorations in Mississippi. Learn about a secret room, dugaloos, and a real-life ghost town. The world could certainly use more Crickets, as well as stories about strong young girls. This one will stay with you for a long time.
May 28, 2018
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe written by Jo Watson Hackl was a joy to read. The main character, Cricket, along with her shoulder-pet cricket, Charlene, were charming and engaging. This is a book written for young adults. The themes of mental health, living without parents, family discord, survival are adult issues that all too often affect the young. The author approached these issues in an age-appropriate, realistic, charming manner. Respect for the environment, nature, poetry and music also ran true throughout the book. As a former middle school math teacher and lifelong puzzle person, I loved Cricket’s thinking aloud as she found clues and solved riddles, possibly opening the minds of the reader to different ways of looking at a problem. Words that resonated with me, a lesson never too young or old to be reminded of: “I didn’t have to choose between loving Mama and being mad at her for leaving. I was big enough to do both.” The book was wonderful. One that I will reread, and one that I will share with educators as well as will my adult book club friends.
July 2, 2018
A fun read with substance! As another reviewer stated so well, Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe is a wonderful choice for both the young and young-at-heart reader. Being the latter, this read was far more engaging than I would have initially expected. There is plenty of whimsy in the adventures protagonist Cricket faces exploring the outdoors, searching for hidden rooms, and following an elaborate clue trail, but the storyline and characters are not saccharine in a way that young adult novels can sometimes lean. Cricket faces very realistic, and, in some cases, adult challenges, but Hackl handles them with great finesse, tackling the topics in a way that is age appropriate but never patronizing. The connection to real people and places of the South was also particularly compelling as I am a native Southerner myself. Highly recommend this to all young adult readers, but especially those with an independent spirit eager for adventure!
May 2, 2018
Just finished reading Jo Hackl´s Smack Dab in the Middle of Mayb,e which was a genuine pleasure, even though I am far from the young adults the novel targets. It is the story of Arianna Overland (Cricket) who loses both her parents, her father to sudden death, her mother to mental illness, and sets out on an adventure intended to lure her mother back to the family fold and to recapture the creative world her mother fashioned for them both. First she escapes the clutches of an aunt, who takes her in mostly for her social security check and is fixing to transfer her to an equally greedy great aunt, and travels (with her pet cricket) to the tree house her father had build in a ginko tree in the woods. Here she draws on survival skills to supplement her food supplies, to light a fire, to keep warm, to scavenge for food, some things she learned from her father, some she puzzles out for herself. In these woods are the remains of an Electric Company which thrived in the early twentieth century but was abandoned when its era passed, and everything not cemented in place left with the Electric Company. Here Cricket hopes to find the secret bird room her mother told her about which she thinks will restore her mother to her. To this end, she has to solve the mystery of the bird room which she encounters as a series of riddles she has to figure out. Along the way, she experiences setbacks: raccoons ransack her tree house and food supplies; a sleet storm nearly wipes her out; and she is bitten by a copperhead, which finally sets her on a course to Miss V. and to the solution to the mystery, setting the stage for the hoped-for reunion with her mother.
I think the novel has everything that might appeal to young adults. The survival techniques—making fire from water, building a trap to catch a fish—are ingenious and worked out in expert detail. The mystery is clever and compelling, interestingly tied to historical events and people. I appreciated Cricket´s attention to birds, and to the thrill of observing the natural world and drawing from nature which her mother instills in her. Cricket experiences the loss that every child dreads above all, and yet there is nothing sentimental about her grief for her parents or her resolve to bring her mother home. Her mother´s home school created for her daughter a magical world of art and poetry, but it was also a product of her mother´s mental illness which set her to wandering, to flirting with men, to ignoring her daughter. Cricket´s growing self confidence helps her to see the flaws in her magical childhood and to accept her mother with all her faults. She lets her mother go, just like she lets her cricket go, with love, and moves on to create her own world and to use her powers in it. And Jo Hackl achieves all this without any mention of the digital age—an occasional cell phone when necessary, but nothing streaming or online, no Snapchat or Instagram.
I think the novel has everything that might appeal to young adults. The survival techniques—making fire from water, building a trap to catch a fish—are ingenious and worked out in expert detail. The mystery is clever and compelling, interestingly tied to historical events and people. I appreciated Cricket´s attention to birds, and to the thrill of observing the natural world and drawing from nature which her mother instills in her. Cricket experiences the loss that every child dreads above all, and yet there is nothing sentimental about her grief for her parents or her resolve to bring her mother home. Her mother´s home school created for her daughter a magical world of art and poetry, but it was also a product of her mother´s mental illness which set her to wandering, to flirting with men, to ignoring her daughter. Cricket´s growing self confidence helps her to see the flaws in her magical childhood and to accept her mother with all her faults. She lets her mother go, just like she lets her cricket go, with love, and moves on to create her own world and to use her powers in it. And Jo Hackl achieves all this without any mention of the digital age—an occasional cell phone when necessary, but nothing streaming or online, no Snapchat or Instagram.
May 28, 2018
LOVED IT. "Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe" by Jo Hackl was a page-turner that I could not put down! The main character, Cricket, captured my heart in the first chapter. The desire for a stable home is universal and she is on a mission to figure out life.
The advice from Daddy in chapter 14 sums it up when he explains "Woods Time" to Cricket. He said, "I think I needed to learn what the woods had to teach me. When you're around other people, it's easy to get caught up in everything and everybody around you. Out in the woods, it's just you. And if you're going to last any time out in the woods, you'd better get comfortable with whoever it is you are."
Without spoiling the ending, I will share only that the plot takes many unexpected turns, and leaves the reader with a recognition that true happy endings aren't always what you want, but might still be what you need.
The advice from Daddy in chapter 14 sums it up when he explains "Woods Time" to Cricket. He said, "I think I needed to learn what the woods had to teach me. When you're around other people, it's easy to get caught up in everything and everybody around you. Out in the woods, it's just you. And if you're going to last any time out in the woods, you'd better get comfortable with whoever it is you are."
Without spoiling the ending, I will share only that the plot takes many unexpected turns, and leaves the reader with a recognition that true happy endings aren't always what you want, but might still be what you need.
June 18, 2018
What an enjoyable story--every chapter ended with my wondering what happens next and so I could not put the book down until I finished it! I felt like I was right there traveling with the main character Cricket in her journey of survival and self-discovery. Thanks to the vivid imagery and attention to detail in the book, as I read I nearly literally could see, smell, taste, touch and hear various aspects of the woods, the ghost town, and everything else along the way. Then on top of that it was great to witness how Cricket thought through what she could do as she encountered challenges in her adventure. The entertaining story is rich with themes to discuss. I think we all could use some time in the woods!
March 2, 2018
Cricket is lost. Her daddy has passed away and her mama has clear run off, so she lives with an aunt that doesn’t seem to care about her as much. So, when Aunt Belinda accidentally leaves her behind at the grocery store, cricket sets off to find the bird room her mom has been looking for ever since she was a little girl. If she could just find the bird room; maybe it would make things with mama better. If she could just find it, she could make her stay.
This was a really sweet coming of age story. However, similar to Winn Dixie, it had themes that younger children, despite it being a middle grade novel, that just went over their heads. But that’s not a bad thing. The kids I take care of still enjoyed it.
Cricket is resilient and intuitive, determined and curious. It’s important for younger kids to see a character like Cricket.
This was a really sweet coming of age story. However, similar to Winn Dixie, it had themes that younger children, despite it being a middle grade novel, that just went over their heads. But that’s not a bad thing. The kids I take care of still enjoyed it.
Cricket is resilient and intuitive, determined and curious. It’s important for younger kids to see a character like Cricket.
May 12, 2018
Cricket is a girl who lives with her aunt and cousins because her father died and her mother has disappeared. When Aunt Belinda leaves Cricket at the store, Cricket seizes the opportunity to go in search of a room her mother told her stories about-a room where it looked like a jungle come to life. Cricket goes with a friend-a cricket that she names Charlene, who is surprisingly helpful. They stay in a treehouse that Cricket's family built before her dad died and the search turns up many surprising things. This is part mystery and part social issues book, which in this case, is a nice combination. The characters are interesting and some are a bit funny, which adds a nice levity to the book. I think this one will find a place in my library. It would connect well with "Three Times Lucky" by Sheila Turnage.
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