Four years ago, 12-year-old Skye’s universe shattered. Her older brother, Finn, was kidnapped by their father and has been missing ever since. In Finn’s absence, Skye is forced to celebrate his “MIA” birthdays with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend, Roger, and she wonders why her father did not take her as well. When Finn suddenly reappears, Skye uses logic and reasoning, taught to her by her physicist parents, along with the photos from her Polaroid camera, to determine whether this boy is the real Finn or an imposter.

The  introspective young narrator of The Shape of Lost Things, Sarah Everett’s latest middle-grade book, seeks to understand the many changes in her life: her relationships with best friends Jax and Reece, her parent’s divorce and her mother’s new boyfriend, the disappearance of her father and brother, and her brother’s ultimate return. Through the use of significant inner dialogue, readers are given a deep sense of the impact that these events have on Skye.

The themes of mental health and mental illness run throughout the book, and provide the opportunity for educators to speak to young readers about these issues from both the perspective of someone struggling with mental health challenges and those witnessing and trying to support a loved one with mental illness. Everett approaches these topics with great sensitivity. The dialogue between Skye and her therapist about Skye’s own mental health, helps break down stigmas associated with mental illness. Skye’s father, with his deteriorating mental health, is depicted as a person in need of support rather than a person to be judged and feared.

In using both physics and photography as lenses through which to understand the world, Everett shows the importance of both the arts and sciences in developing the minds of young people, and how these disciplines can  help them deal with and process their grief. As Skye struggles with the many changes she has been forced to endure, she slowly comes to understand how central change is to life. With the guidance and support of her mother and therapist, Skye learns that the only way to deal with the grief caused by things she cannot control is through healthy and open communication. Learning to find each other amidst chaos can be an important lesson for young readers.