Where Things Come Back / John Corey Whaley / 228 pages

This winner of the Printz and Morris Awards is a most unusual book!    Although I was a bit put off by the language, the message imparted by the book and the pathos of the main characters perhaps compensate for  it.  Cullen Witter 's brother, Gabriel, has disappeared.  Cullen is devastated by the disappearance and finds it difficult plan for the future and to continue in with life as it is in the present.  He is also trying to understand how the alleged sighting of a woodpecker previously thought to be extinct has turned the town on its ear.  Is the disappearance of his brother connected to the reappearance of the woodpecker?  References to the Book of Enoch, the battle between the angels, the nephilim, and Ethiopia certainly engage the reader and combine with this coming of age tale to demand that the reader consider the philosophical aspects of existence.