Literary Merit: Very Good
Recommended: Highly Recommended
Level: 8-12 years

Clover and Danny are best friends and they feel better when they are around each other. One day in class Danny starts to feel bad and so begins a series of tests to determine what is wrong. Clover just knows that he feels better when she is around. When her teacher asks them to do a science experiment, she decides she will do hers on Danny and finding out what is wrong. This is a heartfelt book that will keep the reader compelled to read it to the very end. I would recommend this for any collection owning others by this author. The story flows along and you feel the sadness, and frustration of both Danny and Clover as the story progresses. ( )

Starred review in Kirkus. Looks amazing but heartbreaking (comparison to Bridge to Terabithia).

*

Clover and Danny have been neighbors and best friends their whole lives, so when Danny gets sick, scientific Clover starts keeping a notebook to study his condition. She finds that her presence is what makes Danny feel better, but she can't live by his side. They hatch a plan to stow away in Clover's dad's truck to Vermont, to a clinic one of Clover's friend's moms told her about (and to see snow). At the clinic, the doctors discover that Danny has Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID), but he has too many secondary complications; one night he sneaks out of the room he and Clover have been sharing to see the snow, and he dies.

The Someday Suitcase is a beautiful story of a symbiotic friendship - Clover and Danny have complementary personalities - full of science and art and friendship and family and magic.

Quotes

I love science words. I love how when I hear them they don't mean anything at all, and moments later they mean more than any other word. (6)

...and when Danny loves something, it turns magical. Danny is good at making things seem different than they are. (29)

"Time to take all that wonderful talking-energy and turn it into creating-energy" (art teacher Ms. Fitch, 87)

[Science teacher Ms. Mendez] says science is beautiful because it is a way of communicating with the world we live in. (96)

"Just because something sounds silly doesn't mean it is. Great scientists don't dismiss anything." (Ms. Mendez, 105)

I like knowing everything about everything, even bad things. Danny likes to know as little about bad things as possible, so he can imagine they don't exist. (108)

Maybe this is who I'm meant to be - a person who makes other people feel better. (150)

Sometimes I hope for things that will never, ever happen.
Sometimes I can't help but hope for impossible things. (166)

I wonder if there's room for science and magic. I wonder if both are possible at once. (173)

But in science, like with art, even when you're wrong, you're right. As long as you're trying, you're doing your job. (208)

"Hopeful's not silly at all." (Clover's dad, 246)

"The way you hope and believe in magic and believe in love is the most beautiful thing in the world. And nothing can take that away from you, okay? That's you. That's who you are. That's what got you here." (Clover's dad, 254)

"Ms. Mendez says being a good scientist isn't about trying to change the world, it's about trying to understand the world." (Danny, 264)

Something inside me is wrong. I feel like my heart has a fever. Like it's sweating and shivering and dreaming crazy dreams. (281) ( )