Our middle grade book spotlight this week is on books that are all about adoption and foster families!! Let’s face it, love ‘em or hate ‘em, where would we be without our families? One of the things I love is that there is such diversity throughout the collection and when it comes to books that feature families and family life, you might read a story that features a family that may be different from your own or maybe you will get to read about family that is just like the one you love to be a part of. The titles this week take a look at families that are created through adoption and fostering and are amazing! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthfamilystories as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord--When the state of Maine threatens to permanently close the doors of her island's schoolhouse, 11-year-old, superstitious Tess' parents – along with several other families – decide to take in foster children in an effort to bolster the school's attendance and halt the state's plan. As a result, Tess gains a 13-year-old foster brother, Aaron, whom she blindly expects will be “full of stories and eager to meet us,” like Anne of Green Gables. When Aaron finally arrives, however, she soon realizes he is nothing like what she had hoped. Taken from his alcoholic mother years ago, Aaron has lived a fragmented life, bounced from one family to another and left with little hope. Gradually, both Tess and Aaron learn valuable lessons during their time together – Tess, that there's more to life than luck and chance, and Aaron, that it is possible to love and trust again.
What I Call Life by Jill Wolfson--Cal Lavender is placed in a foster home after her troublesome mother explodes in a library. She puts on her eleven-year-old "Face for Unbearably Unpleasant and Embarrassing Situations" and copes with her unique housemates: Amber, who doesn't speak; Fern, who is always laughing; Monica, who has a broken arm; and Whitney, who has a defective heart. Their old caregiver, Knitting Lady, teaches them to knit, shares stories about a foster girl, and helps them to learn to appreciate their differences and forgive their parents.
Hope In the Holler by Lisa Lewis Tyre--Right before Wavie's mother died, she gave Wavie a list of instructions to help her find her way in life, including this one: Be brave, Wavie B! You got as much right to a good life as anybody, so find it! But little did Wavie's mom know that events would conspire to bring Wavie back to Conley Hollow, the Appalachian hometown her mother tried to leave behind. Now Wavie's back in the Holler--and in the clutches of her Aunt Samantha Rose. Life with the devilish Samantha Rose and her revolting cousin Hoyt is no picnic, but there's real pleasure in sleeping in her own mother's old bed, and making friends with the funny, easygoing kids her aunt calls the "neighborhood-no-accounts." With their help, Wavie just might be able to prevent her aunt from becoming her legal guardian, and find her courage and place in the world.
Planet Jupiter by Jane Kurtz--Things start falling apart for Jupiter when her mother rents an actual house and her brother, just like her father, seems like he is deserting their family of buskers--wandering musicians who make a living playing on street corners and at fairs. No more wandering now, and to make things worse, Jupiter is going to have to share her house with a cousin from Ethiopia she never even knew existed.
Extraordinary Birds by Sandy Stark-McGinnis--Eleven-year-old December Lee Morgan suffered a terrible injury from her mother years ago and now doesn’t have a permanent home. This has left her with psychological scars in which December becomes convinced that one day she will sprout wings from the scar on her back and fly away. Her new foster mother, Eleanor, however, is something different. Not only does December receive in Eleanor a respectful guardian, she also makes friends with a kind girl from school who is horribly bullied by girls who refuse to use her preferred pronouns. Slowly, December begins to think that being human isn’t so bad.
Primer by Thomas Krajewski--Thirteen-year-old Ashley Rayburn's upbeat attitude may hide a downbeat past, with her father in prison and having several foster home-stays under her belt already, but now she has found a new, loving family, a best friend, and has discovered a love for painting. However, Ashley also has a history of trouble finding her wherever she goes, and that proves true here when she comes across a suitcase of specially enhanced body paints that, when painted on her skin, gives her superpowers. That is awesome--until the government agency that made it wants the paint back.