Tag: family

Tune It Out

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Lou has never liked big crowds, or people touching her, or loud noises. She may not have a life like most other kids, but she knows she’s safe with her mom. In between shows where she has to sing in front of crowds, she and her mom sleep in their truck. They’re staying in a town that Lou likes, and hopefully they will be there for a while. But when an accident happens and Child Protective Services gets involved, Lou has to move to a brand new place, with a family she doesn’t know. Starting at a new school is never fun, and Lou just wants to fly under the radar. But a persistent friend, a school counselor, and a loving aunt and uncle help her realize that maybe things will be alright after all.

What I loved most:

In so many books about neurodivergence, the differently-abled character is a sibling/friend/side character. That’s not the case in Tune It Out – Lou gets to be the heroine of her own story. At the beginning of the book, she’s never heard the term “sensory processing disorder”. By the end, she’s working on coping skills and management strategies, and boldly tells her mom about SPD and what it means. It’s SO important for children to see themselves reflected in the literature that they read – and not just as a side character. Three cheers for differently-abled protagonists!

Read this book if you like:

Contemporary fiction, complicated families, neurodivergent protagonists, music, theater, accepting who you are

Book details:

  • Author: Jamie Sumner
  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
  • Date of Publication: Sept 1, 2020
  • Age Recommendation: 5th – 8th graders
  • Look up Tune It Out on WorldCat to find it at a library near you!

The Unadoptables

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Milou, Egg, Lotta, Sem, and Fenna live together in Little Tulip Orphanage. All five of them were left at the orphanage the same summer, twelve years ago. Some are waiting for their birth families to come back to get them; others are waiting for new parents to bring them to a new home. But when a shady sea captain comes and offers to adopt all of them, they can sense that something is wrong with him. They decide to run away before he can get them – and so begins an epic adventure involving a windmill, puppets, and the chance to start a new family of their own.

Favorite Passage:

“Milou?” The voice seemed both familiar and new, raspy and quiet.
“Milou?” The next voice was more recognizable, sweet and soft.
“Milou?” The last voice was like home.
— Thirty
[This passage was quoted from an ARC; as such, it may change before final publication.]

What I Loved Most:

Tooke uses such an engaging and rich writing style in crafting this story. You can’t help but love each of the five main characters featured in this book. They have such strong bonds that they’ve formed in their time together in the orphanage. Each has their own strengths – Lotta is a mathematician and engineer, Sem is creative and great at sewing, Egg has geography and cartography skills, Fenna is kind, and Milou is imaginative. There’s a great balance of adventure and genuine friendships, so there’s something that every reader will find appealing in this book.

Read this book if you like:

Found families, overcoming adversity, low-key mysteries, strong relationships

Book Details:

  • Author: Hana Tooke
  • Publisher: Viking/Penguin Random House (Thank you for the ARC!)
  • Date of Publication: July 23, 2020
  • Age Recommendation: Grades 4-7
  • Look up The Unadoptables on Worldcat to find it at a library near you!

 

Better Than the Best Plan

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Mitzy’s mom has always been a little untraditional… which is why they’ve moved from place to place as she tries out yoga or enlightenment or commune-living. But this time, things are different, and Mitzy is on her own. She comes home from school one day to find a note informing her that her mom is in Mexico for her latest venture, and Mitzy doesn’t know when she’ll be coming back. Seventeen-year-old Mitzy is a few months away from legally being an adult, so she figures she’ll be fine on her own. But when someone reports her to Child Protective Services, a social worker turns up to bring her to a foster home. And in a weird twist of fate, Mitzy finds out not only that she was in foster care as an infant, but that she is being brought back to the woman who was her foster mom for eighteen months.

Better Than the Best Plan follows the summer before Mitzy’s senior year of high school. Mitzy is trying to get settled into the gorgeous, fancy new house she’s staying in – but trying not to get to comfortable, since she is pretty sure her mom will come back to get her soon. Her new life is a far cry from her old life, and she is not sure what to think of the country club nearby, people who have private pools and tennis courts, or the cute boy who lives next door. Pick up Better than the Best Plan for a quick summer read that pulls you in from the first chapter.

Favorite Passage:

“I tell you all that because here’s the thing. I wanted to keep you. I so desperately wanted to keep you. I tried, in fact, probably harder than I should have. But your mother, she wasn’t going to walk away from you. She did everything the court required. She attended every DCF meeting. She jumped through every hoop, followed every rule. And it wasn’t easy. They really don’t make it easy, especially with kids as young as you. She really had to prove herself to them. But every challenge they laid, she met it, and so just after your second birthday, you went back to her. ‘Family reunification’, they call it. I wasn’t there to see it. I don’t think I had the strength to endure it. But you have to know that for nearly two years your mother fought for you. She never stopped being your mom, and she fought to make sure the court knew it. She didn’t leave you, Maritza. She went away, but she never left. Trust me on that.”
— Chapter Fifteen

What I Loved Most:

I feel like most of the books I’ve read featuring protagonists who are in the foster care system are heavy. Which is totally fair – these kids are going through super hard stuff. However, Better Than the Best Plan manages to be a light and fun read, while not shying away from hard questions like parental abandonment and messy family situations. This was a genuinely fun book to read. I also loved how the book stresses that even though Maritza’s biological mom left, it doesn’t mean that she stopped loving Ritzy. This book is very positive toward both the bio-parent and the foster parents. And it ends in a messy but happy way, which I think is a wonderful portrayal of how the foster care system can sometimes work to create a bigger family rather than splitting up families.

Read this book if you like:

Summer reading, identity searching, non-traditional families

Book Details: