Missing Girls [Paperback]

Lois Metzger (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

It's 1967, and Manhattan is full of "missing girls"-runaways looking for freedom. In nearby Queens, Carrie Schmidt feels like she's missing, too-missing from her own life. Ever since her mother died four years ago, it's as if she's been sleepwalking. Then Carrie meets Mona, who knows the secret of "lucid dreaming," being awake inside your dreams. Their friendship is Carrie's chance to find her mother-and wake up to her future.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thoughtful readers and their parents will find this multilayered story of mother-daughter tensions hauntingly real, and a great discussion book. Ever since her beautiful red-haired mother died of cancer four years ago, Carrie, 13, has been a "missing girl," veritably sleepwalking through each day. And she has a recurring dream: her mother sits at the kitchen table, alive but unsmiling and remote. When her new friend Mona offers to teach her about lucid dreaming--"being awake while being asleep"--she is powerfully attracted to the idea. Could she possibly talk to her mother in her dreams?

But Carrie can't bear to face her confused feelings about her mother's death, especially with her friends, who are loud about their dislike of their own mothers. So where can she find a dream she is willing to share? She has always resisted hearing her grandmother's stories of the Holocaust, but now she begins to listen avidly, and passes off as her own the images of rats and terror from her grandmother's recollections, which she describes to Mona.

As Carrie hears these horror stories with fresh ears, her contempt for her immigrant grandmother turns to compassion, and she comes to a fuller understanding of her mother's childhood. When Carrie at last has a lucid dream, the dream figure turns away with an apologetic smile from her daughter's attempts to communicate, making it possible for Carrie to accept that her mother no longer exists--and to wake up to her own life. --Patty Campbell --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In this introspective but often convoluted novel set in 1967, Metzger (Ellen's Case) introduces two eighth-graders who feel as lost as the "missing girls" they hear about on the news. Ever since her mother's death four years ago, Carrie Schmidt has felt parts of her life slipping away. This year her father has taken a temporary job out of state, and she is living in her Austrian Jewish grandmother's small, dark house in another neighborhood in her native Queens. Memories of her mother are fading too quickly, coming back into focus only in Carrie's dreams. Carrie's desperation to make sense of these dreams draws her to Mona Brockner, an outcast at school, who claims that it is possible to stay awake during sleep. As Carrie spends more and more time at Mona's "picture-perfect" house, her desire to become one of the Brockners borders on obsession, even though the dark, disturbing currents of the Brockner household are immediately obvious to the reader. While the girls' discussions of dreams (which take up a good portion of the novel) are interesting in themselves, they feel tipped into the plot, not an organic part of the story. This is true also of tales about Carrie's family history, told by Carrie's grandmother, who survived nine concentration camps, and Angus, a visiting Scotsman who sheltered Carrie's then-teenage mother during WWII. The elements of this novel are full of promise, but, unfortunately, their combination doesn't add up. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Puffin; Reprint edition (April 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141310863
• ISBN-13: 978-0141310862
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.5 x 7.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,983,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., May 31, 2005

By 

Janna - See all my reviews

This review is from: Missing Girls (Paperback)

This was a good book of self discovery. The not-so-good thing about it was it was kind of confusing and I found myself skimming through some of the pages it just didn't pull me in as other books have. I liked when her grandmother talked about the war and her mother. But all in all it's probably not worth buying but more of a library type book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Moving, August 25, 2002

By 

"iit0olii" (a Hell hole) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Missing Girls (Paperback)

I did enjoy reading Missing Girls a lot. Carrie reminded me of my best friend & Mona of me. just by the way they act & their family. I was interrested in lucid dreaming just like Carrie. I don't think it ever happened to me...not that i recall. I liked hearin Mutti's stories of the war. What made me happy, yet sad was that Carrie does look like her mom, when she was younger. Carrie is very surprised to also find out her mom, Liesl, was a vey depressed girl at one time, just like Carrie.She does find her place...even though her & Mona are "missing girlz" at least they found each other. Just like I found my bud, T.With each other we can ease our pains & help each other out. Like Mona had said, Carrie wants some1 to come in the pit with her, like Mona. That's how i feel with her. This book was good & it really reminded me of "real" life. If you are interrested in dreams or even the war ou'll like reading Missing Girls. It's good book for any girl or even a guy. Do enjoy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad, sweet book of awakening, March 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Missing Girls (Hardcover)

The title craftily compares 13 year old Carrie to the real 'missing girls' of the book, a background story of young girls who run from unsatisfying home lives, sometimes to be found dead, sometimes remaining missing. Carrie has symbolically run from her own unsatisfying life, by withdrawing, overeating, and choosing not to relate to her grandmother, who she is living with. Her grandmother, a survivor of the haulocaust, has her own demons.

When Carrie becomes friends with Mona, Carrie experiences a false awakening as she tries to fit into what she perceives as the perfect American family, which is a contrast to her immigrant grandmother who can't seem to get the American way of life. But she learns that appearances can be deceiving, and Mona and Carrie begin a journey to understand their genuine selves. Carrie faces up to fears, comes to terms with her mother's death (four years earlier), and turns a subtle and mostly silent love for her grandmother into a wonderful relationship they both need.

There are morals to the story, but the book is decidedly devoid of the sickly sweetness and neat tie-ups that are characteristic of literature for young adults. I highly recommend this book for teenagers and adults alike.