The Leftover Kid

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education and the author of The Private Journal
of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

Willa’s mother is a psychologist and her father is an unsuccessful
inventor who also runs a flower shop. Her 11-year-old life has just
taken a turn for the bizarre. Her mother has married the prime minister,
compelling Willa to move into the official residence. The prime minister
already happens to have five daughters—identical quintuplets. Willa
finds herself playing 6th fiddle to their fame and bland charm in a
setting that combines Hollywood fantasy and security nightmare. What if
the famous five should be kidnapped?

Willa longs to return to her father in Montreal, but political
considerations make this impossible. How will she cope with life at
Sussex Drive? One of her in-house missions—to bring a glimpse of real
life to her new sisters—leads to lapses in protocol, a near-drowning,
and a stepfatherly reprimand. Willa’s other main activity,
eavesdropping on staff members, seems to reveal that the greatest threat
to the quintuplets’ safety may come from within the trusted household.

Readers may be plagued with distracting questions from the outset. How
on earth did Willa’s mother make it to the altar with the national
leader in the first place? What are the odds of a prime minister, even a
fictional one, being the father of quintuplets? Suspension of disbelief
notwithstanding, when fantasy is injected into an essentially realistic
fictional world, an emotional distance tends to be created between the
reader and the characters.

An entertaining and imaginative heroine, amusing incidents, and a
clever writing style enhance this unlikely story, but they cannot
completely redeem it. Not a first-choice purchase.