Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Thirteen-year-old Walter Lavender Jr. finds lost things, a hobby he developed while waiting for his long-delayed airplane-pilot father to find his way home. He lives with his mom, Lucy, and helps in their small pastry shop, Lavenders, which is protected by a seemingly magical book that animates baked goods and where his motor speech disorder isn't important. After an unpleasant visit from their new landlord, the book disappears, and the next day, Lavenders is threatened with closure. Junior has 24 hours to restore their book, which has been dismantled and is lost somewhere in New York City. The majority of the narrative is devoted to Walter's adventures as he pushes beyond self-imposed limitations to meet people and conquer the city. Keller's debut is a tad tedious, and this is not a book for impatient readers, but it rewards those willing to savor the linguistic riches and quirky characters, artfully provided by the author. With its strong story line and magic realism, this will appeal to readers of Joanne Harris' Chocolat (1999) and the works of Alice Hoffman.--Welch, Cindy Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal
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Kirby Heyborne deploys his gentle charm to give voice to 12-year-old Walter Lavender Jr. Walter, owing to "a motor speech disorder," might seem mute to the outside world but has an imaginative soul that can't be silenced. Always an insightful observer, Walter is an unparalleled finder of lost things-84 cases already solved, including buttons, photos, and a broken bassoon. What remains missing in Walter's young life is his pilot father, whose plane disappeared three days before Walter's birth. His mother has filled some of that void with stories and the unique confections (marzipan dragons, penguin cookies, fizzy angel food cakes) she makes for their West Village bakery. And then the shop's sweet magic all but disappears when "the Book"-seven leather-bound pages about lost love-is stolen, sending Walter and his canine sidekick Milton out into Manhattan to solve his most important case yet. His road to recovery will require the kindness of strangers, including an elderly Chinese woman, a chess teacher with missing fingers, and a girl who takes Walter running through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. VERDICT Keller's endearing debut finds an ideal collaborator in Heyborne, who enhances the author's winsome words with delicious delight.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A debut novel about The Lavenders, a magical bakery tucked away in the streets of lower Manhattan, and the people who call it home.Thirteen-year-old Walter Lavender Jr. has a motor disorder that's left him unable to speak, but he also has a nearly supernatural ability to find lost things. The thing he's most passionate about finding is his father, an airline pilot whose plane went missing en route to Bombay three days before his son was born. When a powerful book that's always been kept in the bakerya seven-page gift from a mysterious customergoes missing, Walter's abilities are put to the ultimate test. Without the Book, the dragon pastries that once breathed smoke (much to the customers' amazement) suddenly fall limp and inanimate. Soon the customers stop coming. When a greedy new landlord doubles the rent, Walter sets out on a hero's journey to recover the Book and save his mother's shop. As he goes about his adventures, Walter encounters a vibrant, typically New York-ish cast of characters, from a junkman living in a pseudo-magical tunnel system beneath the city to a Chinese woman fallen on hard times who collects bottles for deposit money. As Walter tracks down the Book, now scattered into pages, he learns lessons from everyone he meets, and as the story winds to a close he has found a whole new sense of himself. Keller's style is simple and often beautiful, and she infuses the novel with flashes of subtle humor and mouthwatering descriptions of sugary confections. But her prose can be weighed down by synonyms, and the device of having Walter meet stranger after stranger during his quest for the Book loses momentum halfway through, as the conversations and characters begin to feel a bit too invented, even for a fanciful read. A tender story that falls just short of the mark. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.