The Decoding of Lana Morris

by Laura McNeal, Tom McNeal

A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

Sixteen-year-old Lana Morris wishes her life were her Ice Queen of a foster mother won't leave her alone, and she has no friends but the other foster kids she takes care of.

Then she stumbles into a mysterious antique shop and trades her most valued possession for a single box of drawing thirteen thick, blank pages, like thirteen wishes waiting to be made. Suddenly, impossibly, it seems Lana might actually have the power to change things. But wishing isn't always as harmless as it seems...

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction, Teen, Fostering, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2007

Reviews

[Carly Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really moving book. Beautifully written and a very lovely read. The bad guys get their comeuppance, the good guys find a loving home, and there's a bit of the supernatural thrown in to make it all happen.

[Sandra McLeod · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully crafted teen novel, but sometimes I felt a little uncomfortable with sixteen-year-old Lana having to deal with so many problems: her treatment by her jealous and unsympathetic foster mother, the inappropriate advances (ambivalently encouraged by Lana) by her foster father, the cruelty of the kids in town, and her eventually becoming the major caretaker for the four special-needs kids in the foster home. I loved the magical drawing kit and all its dramatic ramifications, but what I loved most about this novel were the relationships: especially Lana's developing relationships with the four special-needs kids and with Chet, the boy next door. The relationships were very real and depicted with great sensitivity.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lana Morris is a sixteen-year-old foster child who lives with four other foster children in the home of Veronica and “Whit” Winters. Lana's four foster siblings, Tilly, Carlito, Alfred, and Garth are “snicks;” i.e., SNKS or Special Needs Kids. While at first, Lana is appalled to be living with "snicks," she comes to love them, and finds that she assesses the goodness of others - including the “semi-handsome” boy next store - by how they treat her foster-siblings. Lana wants to make all of their lives better, but doesn’t know how, until a serendipitous visit to an antiques store gives her what she needs to make her life go “from grim to good.”

Excellent read.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that one book that gives you a feeling you can't really describe? That's what I get from this book. Not a bad feeling, though. I love how this author focused on the characters, with the background story and all. It was a little confusing because of all of the great details.
Maybe if you were a re-reader ( which I am not) you would really enjoy reading this book multiple times because there were so many details missed.

I'm glad I picked up this book. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but I really loved how different it was. That's what made this book.

I rate this a 4.3 and definitely will be checking out more of her books. Great read, is a must.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts out a little too gritty--neglected kids with mean drug-using "friends" and a spiteful foster mom. Add in a 16-yr-old girl falling in love with her 31-year-old lecherous foster dad, and I almost stopped reading.

But it got better. The narrator develops a real friendship with the neighbor boy and actually starts liking the four "special needs kids" she lives with.

I like happy endings, but this ending is a little too "super-happy-happy" for my tastes--everything turns out perfectly in a very short amount of time. But I don't begrudge the authors too much.

[Liz Hokanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I wish I knew more about the characters. For the most part, I couldn't really understand why some of the characters were doing what they were doing (Lana, in the end?) but I thought it was a cute story. I loved Lana's voice as the narrator, and Chet was pretty much the most hilarious part of the whole thing. Something that bothered me about this story was that I could never really tell how Lana felt about the SNKs. Maybe that's super dumb that I didn't pick up on her real feelings, but I just couldn't follow her sometimes.

[Catherine H · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very average read in my opinion.

There wasn't much character development in the main character. The relationship between Lana and her foster father was creepy and didn't add to the story other than to add shock. All the other character relationships were surface level.

I finished feeling very underwhelmed. This plot had so much potential for some really beautiful themes but it fell flat.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very realistic teenage voice. But the emotional portrayal is all over the map and it is hard to see any real change in the main character or to even understand why she changed. Ending leaves you wanting. Note some very mild content may not be suitable for all readers.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good yet confusing book about a girl growing up in a foster home.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really did like this book, especially lana's realtionship with chet, who was my favourite character. but i was made uncomfortable during parts with lana and her foster father.

[Caitlin N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a little sad, but for the most part it was very happy. I liked the ending, how it was a happy ending.

[Danella Virtue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing style! A good read!

[The Dusty Jacket · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you had one wish…just one…what would it be?

Sixteen-year old Lana Morris lives in a two-storied foster home that she shares with four special needs kids (Snicks for short) and her foster parents, Whit and Veronica. Lana wishes for a different foster mother; she wishes to fit in with the cool kids; she wishes she didn’t have to live in Snick House; and she wishes she understood her feelings for Whit better. Lana wishes for a lot of things and soon, after she visits Miss Hekkity’s Oddments & Antiques, she’ll have not just one wish, but 13.

First, I want to focus on the positive aspects of this book, which is the attention the McNeals devote to young people with special needs. They give us insight into their daily lives and allow us to understand their challenges and individuality. Too often society judges these amazing people by their outward appearance or behavior alone. It is also heartwarming to see Lana’s role evolve from disparager to defender as she connects with her housemates and appreciates their uniqueness.
Unfortunately, the negative aspects of this book vastly outweigh the positives. The McNeals make Veronica excessively cruel and evil for no apparent reason. Her treatment of Lana is childish, snippy, and incredibly mean-spirited. The authors provide no insight as to why this kind of person possesses such disdain and disregard for the children in her care. We find out late in the book that she is unable to have children of her own. So, are we then to assume that these children are somehow meant to fill a personal void or is she putting her own feelings aside and doing it out of selfless love for Whit? Surely, she can’t be putting herself and these children through such torment for just a monthly stipend.

Additionally, and more disturbingly, is how the authors portray Whit. Before Lana gains access to her “wishes”, Whit is a beloved, meek, and kind foster father. The children adore him and Lana views him as a father (although her affections often overlap between familial and hormonal). After her visit to Miss Hekkity’s, Whit inexplicably becomes increasingly salacious and lecherous toward Lana. As a lonely teenage girl in want of a father figure, Lana is naturally drawn to Whit, but Whit’s reciprocation, and even encouragement, of her interest crosses a very distinct line which is both disturbing and unsettling. If the authors merely did this to shock their teen readers with provocative and edgy content, they handedly hit their mark. What is supposedly a book about a teenage girl desperately trying to find love and acceptance dives abruptly into a world filled with infidelity, child exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

If I had one wish…just one…it would be that the McNeals had stayed a little truer to their book’s proposed purpose. Unfortunately, the strong and encouraging themes of love, acceptance, and friendship are overshadowed by hate, jealousy, and lust and no amount of wishes can overlook that.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book, I’ve read it almost every summer since I was maybe 13ish? Reading through the reviews I’ve noticed people explaining they’re uncomfortable with the mature themes relating to 16 year old Lana, especially what happens with her foster dad, and rightfully so. But you’re not supposed to be okay with their relationship, and if you focus on that you’re missing points. It’s Lana’s story, and I remember being 16 and pining after older men without fully understanding what kind of man reciprocates flirtations with someone well out of their age range. I related to Lana so much which is partly what made me fall in love with this book. Something VERY important about this story is that her and her foster dad’s relationship leads to her having an experience with heartbreak and learning a valuable lesson about fantasies and adult relationships: you get let down. A lot. Things are always different behind closed doors, and people are rarely if ever who they seem. I may not have grasped that concept as soon as I did if it weren’t for this book.
Some people are also uncomfortable with the misfortune of Lana’s situation as well as confused by her desire to still be around her “friends.” I though it was obvious she wanted to be with Chet as well as to get away from Veronica and the responsibilities she placed on Lana. I could relate to that when I was younger, sometimes life really is trading this bad thing for that bad thing. Kids in the real world are placed in similar tough situations, not sure why some readers were so uncomfortable with the setup of Lana’s life, as many parts of it are true to the real world, might even give hope to kids in similar situations.
Possibly the biggest reason I love this book so much is that the magical aspect of it is so subtle it seems so possible and realistic, kind of like that movie Practical Magic, I think the authors did a fantastic job and I hope my thoughts on certain aspects of this story might help others have some more forgiveness for their original thoughts on it.

[Dfghjk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the book in the beginning was very boring and almost stopped reading it . The relationship between Lana and Veronica the ice queen / guardian was very weird. And then relationship between Lana and Whit was just icky and gross and very uncalled for , especially what happened in the garage. And then when Veronica got her arm cut off it just seemed like something they needed to fill the pages just to make the book longer it was very random.

[The Rusty Key · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Rusty Key Writer: Jordan B. Nielsen

Recommended for: Ages 16 and up for frank sexual discussion and general maturity level of themes and tone. The story features a female protagonist and romantic elements, but the overall strength of writing and complexity of the characters should make this book appealing to boys as well as girls.

One Word Summary: Esoteric.

Magical realism comes to the Midwest in this pleasingly offbeat story about a foster child who’s suddenly given the power to see her every wish fulfilled. Cerebral, sexy and unexpected, the McNeals deliver a tale that not everyone may get, but those who do will be blown away.

When Lana Morris first arrived at her new foster home, she figured there had been some kind of mistake. She’d been to rough homes before, but this one was different: the four other kids living there were all mentally disabled to varying degrees. But due to budget cuts in state funding for foster homes, her social

worker informed her, there was nowhere else for Lana to go. If that weren’t difficult enough, the house is overseen by Veronica, exactly the sort of hateful person who shouldn’t be doing social work (and having worked at non-profits let me tell you, there are lots of Veronicas out there), and her charismatic, handsome husband Whit, who drifts in and out between painting jobs but is mainly ineffectual.

Lana got along well enough just keeping to herself at first, but affection for her fellow housemates soon blossomed in the form of a friendship with Tilly, a slow, shy girl who sees immense beauty in everything from rocks to bird nests. After learning each of their idiosyncrasies, the Snicks (A distortion of the acronym SNKs, for Special Needs Kids) don’t seem all that bad. In fact it’s the so-called “normal” people who pose the bigger problems. The local kids treat Lana as a freak for having such unusual housemates. More troubling still, Lana begins to develop romantic feelings for her foster father Whit (feelings that are not exactly one-sided), and when the jealous and petty Veronica learns of this, she makes it her mission to see Lana disposed of. But salvation arrives for Lana in
the form of a drawing kit with the uncanny ability to make whatever is sketched on its pages come true, for better or for gravely worse. With a limited number of pages and erratic, sometimes costly results, what can Lana conjure to make her situation better? The return of her drug addicted mother? An escape for herself with the beguiling Whit? Or will she use the pages to bring happiness to her woebegone housemates?

After reading and raving about Laura McNeal’s solo work Dark Water I was eager to see what else the author and her husband/writing partner had in store. I was initially fearful of how another writer’s influence might alter Laura’s style, but needlessly so. It’s difficult to attribute precisely which strengths derive from which authors, but having read Dark Water, my suspicion is that Lana Morris takes its lyrical richness and emotional warmth from Laura and its incising, sardonic wit from Tom. Either way, the styles come together perfectly to create a clear, authoritative point of view that both grounds this fantastic story and sets it free.

Huge plaudits have to go to the authors for their honest and fearless depiction of the Special Needs Kids. You don’t see too many books about people with mental disabilities probably because it’s a button that’s too hot for most to touch. The McNeals have done fine work in laying out all of the silly, strange, sad, and uncomfortable moments seemingly without fear of your judgment or a desire to pander to your sympathies. These characters are at times very raw and at others very touching, and it’s left to the reader to make what they will of these scenes.

And plaudits too for the smoldering heat between Lana and Whit. I’ve long said that, as with the case of say, Vladmir Nabokov’s Lolita and the movie The Ballad of Jack and Rose, if you can get me rooting for a mind-bogglingly taboo romantic relationship, well, I’m not sure what greater skill is out there.

My one wish was that we might have seen more of Veronica, a monstrous character who could have used some humanizing. I wanted to understand her better in the end and while she is humbled, she never quite softens in the way that I might have hoped for.

I’ve called this book esoteric in my one word summary, and I mean that in the best way possible because not all books should be loved by all people. There are aspects of this book that are hard to read, as it’s hard to take a really close look at the grim realities of mental disability, and for some it may be too much. The McNeals don’t pull any punches here, and that may alienate some readers, but hey, too bad for those guys. It’s heartening to read a YA book every once in a while that isn’t the start of a trilogy, or angling for a movie deal; a book that’s just great, pure, stand-alone, literary fiction, unafraid of wiping off the Vaseline smile and getting a little ugly. To be sure, Lana Morris is a diamond in the rough.

For more reviews, author interviews, reading lists, and articles from The Rusty Key, visit us at www.therustykey.com

[Christine Jackman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple story depicting "be careful what you wish for." Not with dire consequences, just unexpected results. Not really as fantastical as the blurb on the back makes it sound, but still a sweet story.

[Emily Cassady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom and Laura McNeal are the writing team who have also produced “Crooked”, “Crushed”, and “Zipped”, so they have experience in the teen drama field.
Their latest novel, “The Decoding of Lana Morris” is hard to read. The truths within are definite and our heroine has non-stop struggles, but it produces a bittersweet outcome that makes the “suffering” worthwhile for the reader.
Lana Morris is a ward of the state. She has been shuffled around and has finally landed in a household of special needs kids. Her wicked foster mother (Veronica), whom she labels “The Ice Queen” is a horrible taskmaster. Lana’s only “friends” are found next door with the normal neighbor kids- Chester. And even those friends don’t treat her right. In the very beginning of the novel, she asks to go for a ride in the car with them. They make her get in the trunk so that they won’t be seen with her. It is a degrading request, but one that the authors make obvious – is something that has happened before.
While in one of the towns along the drive, Lana is let out of the trunk. She doesn’t have enough money to go to the diner with the other kids. Instead, she wanders in to Miss Heckity’s antique shop. She and Miss Heckity talk and Miss Heckity encourages her to look around and find the thing that stands out.
Lana finds a Ladies Drawing Kit that she can afford and purchases it with the last item she has left that belonged to her father: a $2 bill.
After she returns home and has an awful encounter with Veronica, which includes Veronica accusing Lana of having designs on her husband AND Veronica producing little red pills that she says she found in Lana’s room, Lana takes out the drawing pad.
She discovers that everything she draws on the ladies drawing kit paper becomes a reality.
Veronica has a very bad accident that night and Lana is left caring for the Special Needs Kids (Snicks). She takes on the role of an adult seamlessly, but the reader feels Lana being smothered. Then the state comes in to review Veronica’s ability to care for the household.
After an accidental wish, a few selfless acts, and a Special Needs Kid using up the remaining wishes on doodles, Lana is left with just one paper.
The reader is left wondering what will come next. Will Lana be able to hold her new family together with her remaining wish?
This is a powerful book about hope and overcoming personal tragedy to succeed in life.

[Hollow May · Rating 2 out of 5]

I flip-flopped with how I felt about this book, and what rating I should give it. The beginning was slow going and at times disturbed me. It was somewhat creepy and... icky? And it had nothing to do with the snicks. The snicks are what kept me reading because I was really interested in them. It was Lana, the MC, that I couldn't understand. I didn't understand her interaction with the "normal" "cool" kids she wants to hang out with. Except for one, Chet, they don't directly talk to her and have her ride in the trunk of the car instead of the backseat. Which she's okay with...Huh?


Her interaction with the Ice Queen foster mother had me wishing for Lana to erase more than what she had erase.

I could not stand the foster mother. She was a total vile Ice Queen. Faith and Unity to that cray-Z bat.

And then we have Lana's disturbing feelings for her foster dad.

The foster dad's flirtation with Lana was icky. This did lead to something happening in the car garage. Ick!

For some reason because how the MC was written and her reactions/emotions I kept picturing the actress Kristen Stewart as Lana. I'll let you be the judge on if that's good or bad.

It was by the middle, up to the end, that I started getting into it. With what she "wishes" for on her magical pebbly leather Ladies Drawing Kit. To her becoming close to the snicks and acting more like a protector and parent to them than either foster parent did. And her relationship with Chet. Even though her "wish" of Chet and a certain disappearing facial feature still has me a little upset. Are they saying she couldn't fall for him because of the dark bulbous mole tucked into the side crease of his nose??

[Judyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5-4/5

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

This book has been on my shelf for a very long time (like, since before Borders closed), and I finally took it off and told myself to read it. I was starting to think it would be pretty meh, a slow read, but I’d had it so long I’d practically forgotten it was there. And it turned out quite a bit better than I thought it would be.

It is a kind of slow read, slow paced, but it’s a very good one. It’s a little eccentric, subtle, quirky, thoughtful. It’s very sweet, with really nice characters that you want to have a happy ending.

It has a paranormal premise, what with the wishes, but it’s very contemporary, actually. Lana is an orphan, and she lives with a bunch of odd orphaned kids, in a house with not-very-nice adults. She wants out, but her wants mature and expand and get better by the end of the book. Her relationships with the kids gets better, grows.

I’m really glad that I picked this book up, forever ago when I did, and that I finally got around to reading it. And I will probably be picking up another book by the McNeal’s in the future.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lana, a 16-year-old foster child placed in a home with 4 Snicks (special needs kids), grows and changes in this story from a defiant teen to a caring friend and family member. Written in 3 parts, we first meet Lana as an unhappy foster child who happens upon a drawing kit that seems to make what she draws come true. After her foster mother loses an arm in an accident, Lana must care for the other 4 children in the house. In so doing, she comes to better understand them and herself.

I appreciated all the characters in this book and how they were sketched and, most especially, the pacing of Lana's development.

My two questions about the book, and probably the reason I didn't give 5 stars, were: 1) What caused Chet's change of heart? If there was a specific incident, I missed it. 2) The ending--it seemed a little unlikely, and yet it was left open enough to satisfy me that it was not all too "pat."

Definitely worth reading! And I am curious about the other three books that this husband and wife team co-wrote; I had not heard of them before but will look them up.

[Serli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was shopping for books one day and I came across “The Decoding of Lana Morris.” Foster child, Veronica Winters, wishes everything about her life was different. She stumbles into Miss Hekkity’s mysterious antique shop and trades one of her most valued possessions for a box of thirteen thick sheets of paper in a black leather case. As soon as Lana’s pencil meets these sheets, everything begins to change. My favorite quote from the book was, “She wanted the light-headed happiness to go on and on, to keep feeling its exhilaration.” This quote was very relevant because, to be honest, I have felt that exact same way and when I read it, it helped me connect to the book. The author’s writing style was very easy to understand and keep up with. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a mystery/romance story.

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

ah my beloved YA books, I have a whole new stack. I wasn't the hugest fan of the previous books by this author team but they seem to be refining their skillz. This book doesn't break new ground - it has echoes of The Great Gilly Hopkins, The Pinballs by Betsy Byars (does anyone remember that one?) and Pictures of Hollis Woods with a little fairy tale thrown in - evil stepmother and magical wishes and all. But it balances a social realism with a sort of whimsy in an interesting way and takes the character into situations and feelings that are realistic and a little risque. Genre changing? No. Worth reading? Yes.

[Sydney J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Decoding Of Lana Morris
This book is very heartwarming in an indirect way. The main character is Lana Morris who is a foster child in the SNICK house where all of the foster children have a mental issue. She can’t stand her foster mom, has a crush on her foster dad, and takes care of her foster siblings. She buys this paper and finds out that it has magical powers when you draw. When you draw it the thing really happens. She finds this out and tries to use it wisely but is not completely sure how too. Find out what happens to her and her SNICK family and the magical paper.

[Havilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The only reason it got 3 stars instead of 4 is because I didn't like that it is found in the Young Adult section. There are some things that happen in the book that I would have had no problem with if they had been approached differently. But maybe that's just me.

I recommend this book for sure. Just be sure to read it first before you let your teenage daughter read it.

I don't want to give anything away so if you want to know exactly what things I'm talking about just send me an email.

[TheSaint · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Decoding of Lana Morris by Laura and Tom McNeal will change your mind about who counts as a misfit in society, and what constitutes a family.
Lana is a foster teen in a house with four special needs kids -- "snicks" to their worthless foster mom. Although she finds it difficult to find her place at first, eventually Lana comes to regard the snicks as really special, and people worth knowing. A strange trip to a strange antique store provides some creepiness, as well as hope for Lana, and the snicks, too.

[Joant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up liking this story of Lana , the "Foster" , mainly because Lana is so likable. Actually all the main characters are well drawn ( a pun there which you will get after you read the book). And Lana's brave defense of the "Snicks" is a pleasure to read. But this book was confusing to me. Was it a fairy tale - with the dust devil bringing magic? Was it a fable with the wishes coming true, but in unpleasant ways? Lana couldn't decide what was happening, and neither could I. I do not know if that was authors' intent, but it felt "incomplete" as I read it.

[Maggie Fisher]

I thought this book was really clever because it put you at a viewpoint of such a hopeful girl, that living in a special needs foster home didnt seem that bad. There was also a supersticious sense to this book but it was integrated really well making it seem almost like reality instead of some tacky magic book. I would reccomend this book, but maybe to a younger audience for it seemed like middle school literature. In the end I must say The Decoding of Lana Morris was a little cheesy because it ended happily but very unrealistic.

[Rose]

Interesting POV choice—third person present, with quite a bit of psychic distance. I sort of wanted to shake the main character for her relationship sense (or lack thereof), and there was a bit of a squick factor with the foster father. The concept was nice, though, with a girl who at first looks down on the special needs kids she lives with, but then decides they are her family, and then she discovers a pad of paper that grants wishes when you draw on it, and has to decide how to use her wishes.

[WCPL Teens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lana has been bumped from foster home to foster home most of her life. In her current situation, she lives with several special needs kids, a domineering foster mother, and a foster father that she begins to have feelings for. She loves to draw, so when she discovers a kit filled with fancy drawing paper, she's ecstatic. What she doesn't know is that everything she draws ends up happening in real life. Once this is discovered, she looks for a way to make all of the foster kids happy.