Against the odds

USBBY Outstanding International Books selection

Kiki lives with her mother and father and their very old fat dog, Mona. Life is good except that Kiki's father, a doctor, feels compelled to go off on missions to dangerous and faraway war zones. No matter how persuasive her arguments, Kiki cannot convince him to stay home.

Kiki's mother explains to her about odds — how it is very unlikely that her father will die because, after all, how many of her friends' fathers have died? The odds are very good it won't happen. When her father actually does go missing, and as her mother and grandmother get more and more upset, Kiki begins to feel that it's up to her to save him.

This award-winning book deals with big moral issues in a serious way, but it is also very funny and deeply human.