A Friend at Midnight

By Caroline B. Cooney

Lily has settled into life in Connecticut after her parent's divorce but it's been harder on her eight-year-old brother Michael. After their mother remarries, her brother chooses to go live with his father in Washington, D.C., until the day he calls home from the Baltimore-Washington Airport where his father has abandoned him.

Lily is home babysitting her baby stepbrother when she answers the phone. She has no idea the extent to which her faith in God will be tested. There is no choice for Lily. She will rescue Michael, but will she be able to rescue herself from the bitterness and anger she feels?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 12, 2008
• ISBN: 9780375849091

Caroline B. Cooney

Caroline B. Cooney was born in New York, grew up in Connecticut, and now lives in South Carolina. Caroline is the author of about 80 books in many genres, and her books have sold over fifteen million copies. I’m Going to Give You a Bear Hug was her first picture book, based on a verse she wrote for her own children, Louisa, Sayre, and Harold, who are now grown. I’m Going to Give You a Polar Bear Hug is the sequel! Visit her at carolinebcooneybooks.com or Caroline B. Cooney’s author page on Facebook.

Reviews for A Friend at Midnight

[wilcoxpat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first scene of this story grabs you and holds on tight. Eight-year-old Michael is abandoned at an airport in Baltimore, you are not told who has tossed him away right away, but soon you learn the terrible truth that the culprit is his father. Michael's only hope is a telephone number that his 15-year-old sister, Lily, made him memorize before he left home in New York to live with his father. Michael waits for Lily and his baby brother to fly to Baltimore to get him and return home before his mother and step-father return from taking his oldest sister to college. However, this is Lily's story as she tries to balance her promise to Michael to never tell what his father did, and her growing anger toward her father and the damage done to Michael. Lily tries to figure out where her Christian beliefs fit in with her inability to forgive her father. Matters come to a head a year later when her oldest sister comes home to plan her wedding and wants their father to walk her down the aisle. This story is grounded in a teenager's conflict as she tries to apply her beliefs to the reality of a dysfunctional family. Focus on faith is never heavy handed and the suspense will appeal to most readers.

[jrlibrary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first five chapters of this book are absolutely thrilling. The book begins with an 8 year old boy being dropped off at an airport without food, money, an airplane ticket or an adult. The reader finds out later that his father just decided that Michael was not "the son I had in mind" so the dad just abandons him at an airport and drives away. The description of the airport, seen through the eyes of an eight year old, is perfect. I could completely feel Michael's bewilderment and anxiety. He eventually phones his sister, Lily, who lives with their mom and stepfather. Lily finds a way to get to where Michael is, and rescues him, while towing two year old Nathaniel in her wake. Michael makes Lily swear not to reveal any of the actions of the father, and she doesn't. For me, the book went downhill from there, since there were multiple references to Jesus, and Lily's communications with God, at whom she is quite angry. Bringing God into the story just didn't work for me. I've read many other books by the same author, and this is the first one which involves God in the story. Lily is angry at God for allowing such a thing to happen to her little brother, and she has to find a way to deal with her hatred of her father when her older sister announces her upcoming marriage, and insists that their father attend the wedding and walk her down the aisle. I won't spoil it by telling you what happens. It was still an enjoyable read, but I'd have appreciated it a lot more without the author's brief excursion into religion.This was my first Early Reviewer book ever, and I was excited to get it in the mail and get started reading. I liked it, but didn't love it.