Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

THE MUSEUM OF LOST AND FOUND

Leila Sales

A poignant middle-grade story about a friendship falling apart and the abandoned museum that becomes a shrine to lost connections.

Vanessa wasn't sure which happened first: finding the abandoned museum or losing her best friend Bailey. She discovered the museum quickly, but losing Bailey was different - it happened over days, weeks, months. She didn't even realize it was happening until she looked around for Bailey and found she wasn't in her life anymore. Something changed when they got to middle school. So when Vanessa stumbles upon an abandoned museum, she decides to store all the artifacts and memories of her broken friendship with Bailey there. But in reconstructing her past, is Vanessa forgetting to live in the present? Moving and heartfelt, The Museum of Lost and Found is about how we grow apart from some people as we grow up and how sometimes we can find new pieces of ourselves in the aftermath. Leila Sales is the author of eight novels, including The Campaign, This Song Will Save Your Life, and Once Was a Time. She is also the editor of many award-winning and bestselling books for kids and teens. She lives in Austin, Texas, and travels often to speak about writing and children's books.

Available products
Book Published 2023-05-16 by Amulet Books /Abrams

Comments

Sales manages to combine all of this into a nuanced look at friendship, family, self-knowledge, coming of age, and community, with Vanessa a strong-minded and sometimes unlikable but always sympathetic protagonist.

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.

Leila Sales explores complex friendship and family dynamics with insight, compassion, and humor in a story that will validate kids' experiences while also encouraging them to consider what others are going through. Anyone who's ever felt lost in the midst of too much change will find comfort in Vanessa's deeply relatable journey - and will likely wish for their own secret museum, too!

Nuanced and thoughtful... A creative and compassionate examination of friendship in all forms.

A beautiful exploration of friendship, family, and forgiveness, and the things we keep in the museum of the heart. So compelling and so deeply moving, I didn't want it to end.

An action-packed ending that satisfies. Creatively explores the complexity of middle school friendships.