“Give a bit of life, lose a bit of life.
That’s how it goes.”

Lonny is a lifeling. He can literally save a life- an animal’s, a person’s- it doesn’t matter whose it is or what they are dying from. Lonny has the power to stop it, but there is a catch- and it is a BIG catch- Lonny gives up part of his life to do it.

Living out in the woods, Lonny hears the “buzzing” each time a critter dies. He gives up days or weeks, despite his father’s best intentions to keep him safely apart. However, the family’s need for money for food puts Lonny into contact with a town full of people for the very first time.

This chapter book for upper elementary readers is one that stays in the mind and rides the edge of creepy- much like an old episode of The Twilight Zone. It slyly asks a lot of questions like “Is safety worth isolation?” and “How much of your life would you give to save someone else?” While Lonny finds his own answers, contemplative readers might come up with their own.