Critics and readers everywhere stood up and took notice when Laura Moriarty's captivating debut novel hit the stores in June '03. Janet Maslin of the
New York Times
praised
The Center of Everything
as "warm" and "beguiling."
USA Today
compared the scrappy yet tender-hearted Evelyn Bucknow to Scout Finch in
To Kill a Mockingbird
. It garnered extensive national attention; from
Entertainment Weekly
to the
Boston Globe
and the
San Francisco Chronicle
, the press raved about the wisdom and poignancy of Moriarty's writing. The Book-of-the-Month Club snatched it up as a Main Selection, as did the Literary Guild. It was a
Summer Reading Pick, a BookSense Top 10 Pick, and a BN.com book club feature title. And still, months after
The Center of Everything's
original publication date, reviews and features of the book continue to run nationwide.