GNOME IS WHERE YOUR HEART IS

A loopy plan for multigenerational reconciliation hinges on the hunt for little green aliens.

Because of a silly rule about unaccompanied minors, 11-year-old Lenore Peabody is forced to sneak through a window to visit her beloved Grandpa Walt at the Shady Elms Retirement Home. As Lenore, known to family and friends as Lemon, explains, Walt is virtually estranged from Dad; thus the covert visits. Walt and Lemon are deep into Project Validation, Grandpa’s long-running effort to prove that he actually did encounter a gnomelike alien 30 years ago. All the evidence is kept in a fat binder under Grandpa’s bed. Truthfully, Lemon comes to visit to hear Walt’s wild tales, casting all the garden gnomes in the neighborhood in a different light. Lemon and best friend Marlo had planned on a Super Chill Summer, but Grandpa’s yarn-spinning has set her on a path to verify the story and, not incidentally, trigger a reunion between Walt and Dad. Lyall weaves her earthbound story into the adventure of the above-mentioned aliens—and delightfully so. The chapters have a lively, starship-adventure feel that plays nicely against Lemon’s artless storytelling. All the aliens have appropriately gnomeworthy names like Gnedley, Gneelix, Gnilsson, and their leader, Capt. Gnemo. Lemon and her family read White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast.

Droll science-fiction elements send this tale of relatable family issues to delightfully surprising places.