The Museum of Lost and Found

March 20, 2023
Sixth grader Vanessa Lepp is hurt and bewildered about being inexplicably abandoned by best friend Bailey Dominguez. When Vanessa discovers a boarded-up museum near her small-town Ohio home, she’s fascinated by its empty frames and pedestals, and begins creating an exhibit about Bailey, hoping to understand what went wrong and to win her friend back. Others, including Vanessa’s 14-year-old brother Sterling, happen upon the museum and begin building their own personal exhibits, forming a secret community that helps Vanessa expand her focus to other friends—and to the mysterious creator of a remarkable painting that she regards in the museum. Sales (Once Was a Time) persuasively portrays Vanessa’s frustration around others’ expectations, her lack of control over her life, and her anxiety, whose presentation involves compulsive skin-picking. Rendering the intensity of middle school dynamics in serviceable prose, this multifaceted art mystery with a focus on interpersonal bonds tackles an array of themes—anxiety, friendship’s natural fluctuations, and learning to let go of the past—while offering opportunity for reflection. Occasional b&w illustrations from Li portray objects from Vanessa’s exhibit. Vanessa cues as white and Jewish; Bailey is Mexican American. Ages 8–12.