Odo and the Big, Giant Sinkhole

The Stars Beneath Our Feet meets When You Trap a Tiger in this voice-driven middle grade novel set in small-town Texas about family, healing, and magic by Suzanne Crowley, the acclaimed author of The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous.

After his mother dies, twelve-year-old Odo’s aloof father moves them to Odo’s grandfather’s house—which is on a mountain in a junkyard full of lost and unwanted things. With his obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic-anxiety disorder, adjusting to life in a new town without his mom feels impossible to Odo. Luckily, help comes in the form of a new friend, Pepper, who doesn’t seem to mind Odo’s particular way of looking at the world. And maybe things could even be good again—if it wasn’t for the sinkhole. The sinkhole that grows bigger every time Odo makes a mistake or has a panic attack. The sinkhole where he thinks he sees the spirit of his mother.

With her signature touch of magical realism, Suzanne Crowley explores neurodivergence, grief, and adjusting to life after tragedy. It is a story about finding the courage to treasure the past, while still pushing forward into the future. With its small-town Texas setting; themes of family, friendship, and community; and an intergenerational cast of memorable characters, this effervescent novel is for fans of The Stars Beneath Our Feet and Counting by 7s.