Frame and The McGuire

Gr 4–7—Frame and her brother Ranger are shocked when they find the dead body of their family friend, called Uncle Tam, in the river. A short time later, the police announce that Uncle Tam was stabbed on the same night that gold coins were stolen from the Dakins' farm. Frame and Ranger decide to look for more clues, eventually finding Uncle Tam's missing dog Sandy and the coins hidden on The McGuire's property. Frame is convinced that The McGuire, a surly man with strange habits, is both a thief and a murderer. As the story progresses, Weston does a nice job of showing how Frame learns to handle grief, a changing relationship with her older sister, and her dawning knowledge that she judged The McGuire unfairly. Unfortunately, the remaining characters in the book are not as well delineated. Weston effectively uses first-person narrative to pull readers into Frame's world, but in this case it also draws a fairly one-dimensional view of characters that Frame dislikes or does not see often. One of the primary characters affected by this is The McGuire, whose change from evil neighbor to misunderstood man does not ring true. However, Weston adjusts for the limited viewpoint by adding a lot of small details about the setting (Vancouver Island), the time period (1985), and life on a farm. Readers with a strong vocabulary will get a lot out of Weston's descriptions and setting, but less confident readers unfamiliar with some of the terms will be looking for a dictionary.