The Someday Suitcase

by Corey Ann Haydu

Overview

Readers who loved The Thing About Jellyfish and Goodbye Stranger will find a mysterious magic and unforgettable friendship in The Someday Suitcase, from the critically acclaimed author of Rules for Stealing Stars.

Clover and Danny are the kind of best friends who make each other even better. They’re so important to each other that Clover believes they’re symbiotic: her favorite science word, which describes two beings who can’t function without the other.

But when Danny comes down with a mysterious illness that won’t go away, the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. So Clover decides to take matters into her own hands by making lists—list of Danny’s symptoms, his good days, his bad days.

As the evidence piles up, only one thing becomes clear: Danny is only better when Clover is around.

Suddenly it feels like time is running out for Clover and Danny to do everything they’ve planned together—to finally see snow, to go on a trip with the suitcase they picked out together. Will science be able to save Danny, or is this the one time when magic can overcome the unthinkable?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062352774
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	989 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Corey Ann Haydu is the author of Rules for Stealing Stars and four acclaimed books for teens. She grew up in the Boston area, earned her MFA at the New School, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her dog Oscar. Find out more at www.coreyannhaydu.com.

Editorial Reviews

A touch of magic, the promise of snow, and so much love I can barely keep it together to write this sentence. I know Clover and Danny will stick with me for a long, long time.

Kate Milford

Beautiful, true, and magical. This book touched my heart.

Lauren Myracle

★ “Haydu’s second middle-grade novel is poignant and powerful. A heartbreaking story about the healing power of friendship amid human fragility.”  

Booklist (starred review)

★ “In this moving, exquisitely written story, Corey Ann Haydu explores the thin line between science and magic within an intense bond of friendship.

Shelf Awareness

06/01/2017
Gr 4–6—Fifth graders Clover and Danny are best friends and have had an incredibly close bond since they were babies. Early on in the novel, Danny develops a serious illness that eludes his doctors and keeps him out of school, leaving Clover to navigate the social side of school without him. When it comes time to choose a science fair topic, Clover decides to study Danny's illness, reasoning that she knows and cares more about him than his doctors do, and slowly deduces that his condition improves when the two are together. At the same time, Clover is learning about symbiosis and thinks there may be a special link between her and Danny that eases his symptoms. Concerned that Danny's doctors aren't doing enough and that he is running out of time, Clover and Danny devise a secret plan that combines Danny's dream of seeing snow for the first time with a visit to the Somerset Clinic, a facility that specializes in a holistic approach to healing. Clover is a compassionate and reflective narrator, and readers will experience her anxiety and overwhelming need to help her friend. The parents are portrayed with refreshing honesty, as are the challenges in various relationships and friendships. While the last few chapters of the book, after Danny's death, are fragmented, they perfectly capture the unfocused feeling of grief. VERDICT Haydu does not shield readers from hard truths, creating complex characters who face difficult situations. This sensitive work will strike an emotional chord with middle graders.—Juliet Morefield, Multnomah County Library, OR

School Library Journal

★ 2017-03-06
If two people connect through symbiosis, what happens when one weakens?Clover and Danny, both 10 and both white, have known each other since birth. They have an unmarred record in the statue game, closing their eyes and striking the same pose; he eats her pizza toppings because she only wants sauce and crust. They're more than next-door best friends—Clover believes they're literally symbiotic. Then Danny starts fainting and getting infections. Hospitalizations, specialists, and a long trek to diagnosis arc ensue. Danny has common variable immune deficiency, but it's not identified until late. With Danny out of school, there's nobody to fill in the paper outline of Clover in art class—a keen symbol of his absence and her need—so Clover uses her scientist's heart and acute eye for detail to do a science project on Danny himself. She identifies something that actually improves his medical symptoms: her. There's magic here—in her personal contribution to his wellness, in their stowaway adventure from Florida to a last-ditch clinic in Vermont, and in Haydu's quietly superb prose. But Danny's CVID is serious and worsening, and his improvement from Clover's nearness is fading. Haydu doesn't romanticize illness, but she provides comfort through art, science, magic, love, and a purple suitcase. A sharp, clear-cut piece that knows life is beautiful and sickness isn't. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews