Poetry Friday- Lilac and the Switchback

Jensen, Cordelia. Lilac and the Switchback
August 19, 2025 by Holiday House

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
 

In this novel in verse, we meet Lilac Ethel Jones, who has been living with her Uncle Mack, Aunt Truly, and cousin Charla after her mother's death in a car accident when she was six. Life is pretty good; her uncle is a nurse, her aunt works at Wrap N Rolz and treats her and Charla to an evening at the shop every Friday, and she has her best friend, Callie. When a letter arrives from England and she finds that her long absent father, Simon, has sent a check for her upkeep, Lilac starts to question why she hasn't been in contact with him. She's even more motivated to hear from him when Truly announces that she is pregnant with twins. This causes some money worries, and Lilac starts to wonder if her family really wants her around. Things are a little rocky in seventh grade, as Callie takes French and starts to hand out with Charla more. Since Charla is a moody teen who seems to resent Lilac's presence in her life, this is disconcerting. Lilac has a math partner, Eli, who shares her father's Jewish heritage, and she investigates this part of her background. She also gets involved in a hiking group at school (hence the title) that is working on cleaning up a path in the forest. When the 7th and 8th grade make plans to take a field trip to Philadelphia, Lilac brings up the zoo, where her mother worked. When that is added as a destination, she asks Simon, who has been e mailing her, to meet her there. She even sends him money for the plane ticket, and he agrees to fly over. As tensions escalate in her household, Lilac yells at Truly for keeping things from her, and spends the night with her new friend Hyacinth and her grandmother before the trip. When Simon doesn't show up, she is devastated, but there's a bigger problem; Truly's pre eclampsia has sent her into premature labor, and the family gathers at the hospital for the birth of the twins. Will Lilac be able to make peace with her past, and feel comfortable in her family, once she knows more about her life? 

Strengths: Lilac's family struggles a bit, but manages to make do. Her classmates also have some challenges; Hyacinth lives with her grandmother because her mother can't take care of her, and her brothers live with her father. There are any manner of surprises that can hit families, and Truly's high risk pregnancy is realistically portrayed. The friend drama is always a good inclusion in a middle grade, and having Lilac's best friend take up with her cousin was a nice twist. It was also good to see that Charla was actually fairly nice. The absent father was well explained after Lilac spent the book being a bit angry about her situation because she hadn't been given all the details. 

Weaknesses: February seems like an odd time of year to plan an outside field trip with middle school students in Pennsylvania. The odds of unpleasant weather seem unnecessarily high. 

What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who are interested in stories about grief and alternative families like Carr's Lost Kites and Other Treasures, Fusco's The Secret of Honeycake, or Watson's All the Blues in the Sky