MMGM-- Finding Normal

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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Always in the Middle 

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Unleashing Readers

Faris Stephanie. Finding Normal
February 20, 2024 by Aladdin
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Things are going along normally in Temple's world; she is worried about being excluded from an important birthday party being held by a popular girl, and she's tired of having to babysit her much younger sister, Kennedy. After her mother wakes her up and tells her to get dressed at 2:00 a.m., however, there are problems to deal with. A local dam has caused a large area of town to flood, and Temple's home is one of the ones affected. The house is still standing, but to avoid mold, everything will have to be ripped out up to the waterline. The family has evacuated first to the public middle school, then to a hotel, and then get an offer to live with neighbors, the Fletchers, who are able to live in the upstairs of their two story home while it is being fixed. Temple isnt thrilled, since their son, Jesse, is her age, and has always struck her as kind of obnoxious. Worried about money, Temple's parents pull her out of her private school, and she has to attend public school with Jesse. He's nice about it, but she runs into two mean girls who give her a hard time. Still reeling from comments her own friends have made, and their treatment of her when they learned her house was flooded, Temple doubts that she will be able to make any friends at her new school. A friend of Jesse's from coding camp, Asha, is nice to her. When concerns arise that Temple's family might lose their home, and Temple sees that this may happen to others as well, she has a plan to stage a fundraiser for flood survivors. She contacts the local news, and even manages to score a popular rock group, The Satellite Boys, to perform at it. Jesse and Asha help with the website, and they get some donations. This is an enormous undertaking, and Temple's parents decide that it's too much, since her homework is suffering. As the date appears, things aren't going well; Temple hasn't booked the venue, there are a lot of logistics that haven't been worked out, and she hasn't made a plan for how the donations will be allotted. Will Temple be able to put her life back together the way that the builders can restore her home?

Strengths: There are so many horrible things going on in the world, and when I was twelve, my concern would have been "What if this happens to ME?" I probably would have had a go bag packed and waiting by the front door. Even if young readers don't consume much news, they have heard of the floods, fires, and wars raging around the world. Temple seems a bit self-centered to the adult perspective, but Faris captures the tween angst perfectly. Yes, the whole house is ruined, but can't I still go to the birthday party? Switching schools was realistic, and I imagine that a lot of families double up to save on hotel bills. There are moments of normality that occur even in the most devastating circumstances, and Faris writes from experience; she mentions in an afterword that her own home was badly damaged in a flood several years ago. This is an excellent balance between school and friend drama and the trauma of living through a flooding situation. This author's other titles, Popularity Code  and Best Night Ever (2017), 25 Roses (2015), and 30 Days of No Gossip (2014) are very popular in my library, so I'm definitely purchasing. 

Weaknesses: It seemed unlikely to me that Temple could have gotten a popular boy band to perforn and yet not have booked a venue (wouldn't their manager have had questions?), but young readers will take this in stride. 
What I really think: Aside from Feldman's 2023 The Puttermans Are in the House (flood) and Bishop's 2017 14 Hollow Road (tornado), as well as Tashjian's My Life as a Meme (#8)(fire) there aren't a lot of books that address the aftermath of a natural disaster. In the same way that children like to read books about children who are abused or in horrible circumstances because it makes their own lives feel better, I think that my students will find Temple's story interesting, and make the fact that they aren't doing well in social studies seem less horrible!