Mathilda Savitch...little girl not quite lost

I enjoyed reading Mathilda Savitch and yet I didn't.  We find Mathilda in the midst of a very broken family stuck in their grief over the death of their older daughter Helene.  Mathilda is dealing with her grief in her own way and desperately wants her parents to acknowledge her and Helene.  The story is told as we listen in on Mathilda's thoughts and rationale for her sometimes bizarre behavior.  She seems like such a little girl sometimes ...afraid of terrorists that might harm her or her friends and then at other times she makes profound conclusions that seem beyond her age.  As the story unfolds Mathilda goes to great lengths to discover the truth of her sister's death and to get her parent's attention. 

I loved reading Mathilda's thoughts written by Lodato.  You just wanted to keep reading- she was funny. Lodato really tapped into what an adolsescent might think- what they might fear, what would make sense to them. At the same time, the story was a sad one and the ending was bittersweet.  Mathilda seemed lost and searching throughout most of the book and at the end she wasn't quite so lost, but not quite found yet either.