Thursday, September 16, 2010

C.J. Omololu excavates 'Dirty Little Secrets,' a hoarding novel for young readers

By Tricia Springstubb

Compulsive hoarding -- ewwww! So repugnant we can't get enough of it, from A&E TV's "Hoarders" to E.L. Doctorow's "Homer and Langley," a novel about two brothers who died in a New York brownstone crammed with over 100 tons of rubbish.

Still, it's not a topic many young-adult writers would tackle. C.J. Omololu does a riveting job in "Dirty Little Secrets."

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Tompkins lives alone with her hoarding mother in a house where the moldy floor "only appeared here and there through the drifts of garbage, like jagged cracks in the earth." Up till now, Lucy has managed to preserve her shameful secret..." More

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