1. Kiss Estelle.
2. Get a job.
3. Cheer my mother up.
4. Try not to be a complete nerd/loser.
5. Talk to my father when he calls.
6. Figure out how to be good.
Fourteen-year-old Dan Cereill (pronounced “surreal”) is reeling from moving and changing schools when the family’s fortune, such as it was, is completely gone. On top of that Dan’s father has announced that he is gay leaving Dan to wonder if his father ever wanted to be a father.
Inheriting a house should be a godsend. And in some ways it is because Dan and his mother have nowhere else to go. But the house is old, drafty, and filled with strange museum-quality possessions that cannot be sold for some much-needed cash. His mother sets up a wedding cake business in the kitchen but that seems to repel more clients than it retains.
Dan has enough problems without an impossible crush on the girl next door. But he knows he’s a goner for Estelle from the moment he sees her–especially once he realizes how much they have in common (although he doesn’t want to talk about exactly how he knows that).
Dan narrows all of his problems to six impossible things–with a penchant for making lists and following through, Dan is optimistic about fixing at least some of them in Six Impossible Things (2015) by Fiona Wood.
Six Impossible Things is Wood’s first novel. It is a companion set in the same world as Wildlife and Cloudwish although it does function as a standalone and can be read without knowledge of the other titles.
There is something very soothing about Fiona Wood’s writing. Her blend of humor and pathos as Dan struggles with the changes in his life make a winning combination. Dan’s narration is authentic and understandably sardonic as he adjusts and tries to make sense of his new home, new school, and new life.
Dan’s relationship with his mom is refreshingly two-sided as they both try to pull themselves together. Their challenges are realistic while also still feeling manageable in a narrative that is overwhelmingly hopeful.
Dan starts Six Impossible Things with no one. His support system is fractured and his everyday life is unrecognizable. Over the course of a rocky few months in a new house and a new school, readers watch Dan rebuild and regroup only to come out stronger than before. The slowly developing friendships with Estelle and other characters are wonderful additions to this charming story. No one captures whimsy and moments of everyday magic quite like Wood. Highly recommended.
Possible Pairings: Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi; Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett; Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo; Boys Don’t Knit by T. S. Easton; I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo; Tweet Cute by Emma Lord; When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon; I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson; Kissing in America by Margo Rabb; 500 Words or Less by Juleah del Rosario; The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider; The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle; Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes; Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner; Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
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