In clear and expres­sive free verse, this touch­ing mid­dle grade nov­el tells the sto­ry of Lilac, whose moth­er recent­ly died. Lilac now lives with her aunt and uncle, who were also her moth­er’s dear­est friends. Lilac’s rela­tion­ship with their daugh­ter is com­pli­cat­ed; the house is already crowd­ed; and they are expect­ing twins; but the home is warm, car­ing, and lov­ing. Nev­er­the­less, Lilac faces social pres­sures, mid­dle school rival­ries, and many fears. In a piece of stray, unread mail, she dis­cov­ers a check writ­ten to her new fam­i­ly by her father, whom she nev­er knew. She begins to won­der whether her prop­er place is in Lon­don with him rather than in the Unit­ed States.

The check seems to be a close­ly held secret and is nev­er dis­cussed in Lilac’s hear­ing, leav­ing her with the mys­tery of her father’s life and why she has nev­er heard from him. To fur­ther add to her con­fu­sion, her father is Jew­ish, mak­ing him seem dif­fer­ent and exot­ic to Lilac. She pins her hopes on meet­ing him even after being informed by those who know him that he is noto­ri­ous­ly unre­li­able. She starts to enjoy hik­ing and the envi­ron­ment, and learns much about her­self through these endeav­ors. She also becomes friends with a Jew­ish boy who invites her to his bar mitz­vah and to join him in chavu­rah-style learn­ing activ­i­ties. Despite her new friend­ships, she con­tin­ues to feel inse­cure about her past and won­ders how her per­son­al his­to­ry affects her cur­rent rela­tion­ships. She hopes her father will meet her soon and they can begin to devel­op a bond.

When her father dis­ap­points her, Lilac begins to real­ize that the peo­ple to depend on in life are your proven friends and it is most impor­tant to rely on your own com­mon sense and matu­ri­ty, but that you can also learn to accept oth­ers with their many prob­lems and defi­cien­cies while remain­ing true to your own val­ues. The pro­tag­o­nist, along with the oth­er appeal­ing char­ac­ters and the read­er, absorbs lessons about loy­al­ty, friend­ship, self-reliance, car­ing, respect for tra­di­tion, and gen­eros­i­ty. Lilac and the Switch­back will hold the inter­est of read­ers and pro­vide much to dis­cuss and enjoy.