May 27, 2025 by Candlewick
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
Maple is in fifth grade, and has a very close family relationship with her older sister, Rory, older brother, Gabe, and her parents. There are family movie nights, meals together, and outings. Lately, though, her parents have been bickering a lot, and her father often leaves to go out, claiming he needs "space". This starts to happen so often that Maple, who loves to draw, envisions her father going through "portal potties" into "Dadlandia", where he can be alone and do activities that he enjoys. We see her cartoon style panels depicting his adventures. Maple's father has promised to help her built a tree fort, but once school is out, he never seems to have time. Her friends Katy and Astrid are supportive, and she has other friends at school, like budding Entrepreneur Oliver. After a family dinner of chili that involves a hot sauce challenge, the father says he is going out to get ice cream, but doesn't come back for hours. Maple hears her parents arguing, and overhears her father saying that he's not cut out for holding a job and being a parent. He goes to live in a cabin owned by a family friend for a while. Maple's mom, who is very busy working, steps up to help build the tree fort, and tries to maintain the close family ties and activities. When Maple has a birthday, her father does show up, but there still aren't a lot of answers about how he is dealing with life, and when he will return.
Strengths: Young readers will love Maple's renderings of her dad's supposed wanderings in the comic strip style panels scattered throughout this story. It seems like a lot of marriages hit a rocky spot when children enter late elementary school, and Maple's parents struggles are explained just enough that we can see their effect on Maple and her siblings. Growing up in the 1970s, I was always afraid that my parents would get divorced, even though they never fought; I can't imagine the tension that Maple and others like her feel when parents are actually fighting, and a parent is moving out. There isn't as much of this family tension depicted in middle grade novels, and it's always valuable to see different variations of this experience. There's an inkling that the father might also be having some mental health struggles. I loved the depiction of every day family life, with special meals, local trips, and traditions. Best of all was the family catch phrase, "someone's gonna end up crying", an admonition that is closely related to my own mother's "don't expect me to pay your doctor's bills"!
Weaknesses: This is an excellent choice for elementary age readers, but my students might find Maple to be a bit young. I would almost like to see this same story told from Rory's point of view. The difference between fifth grade and seventh grade is huge. The book is great, but I'm not sure it is the best fit for my collection.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who find difficult family dynamics interesting to read about and found Knisley's Stepping Stones, Vitalis' Unsinkable Cayenne, or Toalsen's The First Magnificent Summer intriguing.
May 13, 2025 by Peachtree
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Odd chains of events bring together four deeply unhappy children in a study room in the public library. Tilly is determined to run away from her home, since her father and older brother are always angry and abusive. Mateo's grandmother has dementia and has moved in with the family. Jada's father is gone, and her mother has moved them from California so that she can work at the public library; Jada is angry and dresses in a lot of black. Eloise's father died, and her mother has remarried Barry. Eloise has decided that she wants to go to California, and plans on earning the money to do this by selling her gourmet cookies that she thinks are better than Crumbl's. She floats this business idea to the three others, and since they all would like to escape their lives and go to California, they all agree. In order to set up at the local farmers' market in three days, they need to develop and taste test cookies, bake them, and pay $575 to the market for stall space. Luckily, Tilly has a food handler's permit. Eloise's former friend Herschel is the only one whom seems to actually know how to bake, but Eloise is fighting with him and doesn't want his cookies. All of the kids make unsuccessful attempts at baking; in Tilly's case, her father and brother eat the cookies, and an argument ensues. When a tragedy occurs in Eloise's family, the group still thinks they can run a stall. While they manage to set up, but no one brings any cookies. Jada's mother often makes gourmet popcorn, so the group sells some of that. While their trip to California is unlikely, the serendipitous friendship helps all of the kids out.
This is a character driven novel that explores the back stories of a varied group of children who are all dealing with different kinds of personal drama. There are a lot of details about random things, like In a Garten, Crumbl and other gourmet cookies, and the interchanges that the characters have had with each other before the story starts, which gives this a contemplative, slow moving quality. This is a good choice for readers who are interested in back stories of the characters navigating trauma in books like Anderson's Ms. Bixby's Last Day or Korman's The Fort.
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