Dear Mom,
Well, I’m here. You can say that much. How about you? Are you there? …
There’s no barbed wire around here, but it does feel kind of like a prison. I call it the Good Grammar Correctional Facility. I won’t get released until Grandmother has fixed up my grammar. I’m thinking of drawing a map of the whole place while I’m here, which will help me get around, and might help me plan an escape route (JK!)…
I love you. And I miss you like (expletive deleted)—
Ella
Kepler's Dream (YA)
Brownrigg’s Young Adult Novel “Kepler’s Dream,” published under penname Juliet Bell, was released as a motion picture in December of 2017.
When eleven-year-old Ella learns she has to spend the summer with her eccentric grandmother in Albuquerque, her heart sinks. Ella may be funny, and brave in helping her mom deal with cancer, but she isn’t sure she’s tough enough to face “The GM” and her old adobe house with its hundred peacocks.
On reaching the House of Mud, Ella finds things even worse than she expected: Mrs. Von Stern lives up to her name, seeming to care more about her collection of books than about her own granddaughter. Worried about her mom, far away from home, Ella settles in to what will probably be the worst summer of her life.
But gradually Ella befriends Rosie, whose father works for the GM, and when a valuable book, Kepler’s Dream of the Moon, is stolen from her grandmother’s amazing library, Ella and Rosie decide to try to root out the thief. Finding the book, and understanding why it means to so much to her grandmother, could even help Ella repair some old tear in the fabric of her family.
Praise
“Utterly captivating, idiosyncratic, rich and memorable . . . not only an entertaining book but an absorbing and artful one.”
—New York Times Book Review
“An impressive debut.”
—Booklist, starred review
“Smart and thoughtful, the story sparkles.”
—School Library Journal
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review