Name: The Postcard
ISBN: 9780316011723

Tony Abbott

Inspired by an old postcard and unfinished magazine, Jason gathers all the strange clues he has discovered and heads down to St. Petersburg with his friend Dia in the hopes of uncovering the truth about his family's past.

The Postcard

While in St. Petersburg, Florida, to help clean out his recently-deceased grandmother's house, thirteen-year-old Jason finds an old postcard which leads him on an adventure that blends figures from an old, unfinished detective story with his family's past.

Lynn Braden

The Postcard is not exactly what I expected. The story is well written, but really seems like it should have been written with a more adult protagonist. Much of the story contained references to literature and history that someone of this age wouldn't know, much less use. The story, however, is very good containing a larger message about life.
When Jason's grandmother dies, he discovers almost accidentally, that his parents are on the verge of splitting up. He goes to Florida to be with his father as they get his grandmother's house ready to sell. Jason is angry and frustrated by his trip to Florida ruining his plans for summer vacation, but when he finds a postcard in his grandmother's house, the real adventure begins. His grandmother's funeral is populated by strange looking people that Jason doesn't know, but they start to seem familiar when the clues on the postcard lead Jason to the beginning pages of a mystery that seems to include his grandmother and all of these strange people. Jason meets a girl about his age named Dia who calls him every name but his own, and she helps him track down more clues and find more of the story. Soon Jason and Dia find themselves in danger from the very people who seemed to be his grandmother's friends. Both the mystery of his grandmother and the mystery of the story run throughout the book.
The Postcard is a very poignant story about the way we spend our lives and what we are left with at the end of it. Overall a very interesting story with lots of twists and turns, especially at the end when Jason discovers who has really been chasing him and why.