Amanda Flower. Andi Unexpected.  Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2013. Print.

Amanda Flower, an adult mystery writer, makes a foray into Juvenile or Young Adult books with Andi Unexpected. The narrator Andi Boggs and her sister have moved into their parents’ hometown with their hippie-ish Aunt Amelie. The two sisters have recently been orphaned and their aunt, now a English professor at Michael Pike University, is their only living relative.

The author paints some expected conflict: dealing with the death of both parents, moving to a new town, and some sibling resentments. But the unexpected conflict is the main story. Andi is a nickname for Andora, not Andrea. As she and her new friend Colin are cleaning out the attic of her aunt’s house, which used to be her grandparents’ house, she discovers that she was named after her grandfather’s older sister, born in 1929 and dying a year later under mysterious circumstances. She learns that no one wants to talk about the elder Andora. She suspects that people know some things, but no one is talking.

Andi Unexpected does have quite a bit of  action as Andi and Colin get into various scrapes. Students in grades 4-6 or perhaps 3-8 would get a kick out of it. Yes, the mystery of her namesake is solved. There are some hints along the way. It may make many readers wonder where our own names come from, too.