June 2, 2026 by Candlewick
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Roxie and her family, which includes younger brother Theo, move to a new home in Greenview, Long Island. Roxie is a bit apprehensive about starting seventh grade, but determined to make it a good year, despite dealing with a bit of anxiety. She doesn't want her classmates to know that both of her parents are blind, since students at her previous school either made fun of her or were overly solicitous about the situation. It's wearing to always have to explain how her parents navigate their lives, especially since her mother has a service dog named Nash. When classes start, Roxie finds she has a few things in common with Kayla, like a fondness for butter pecan ice cream and rock climbing, and Roxie makes an effort to talk to Kayla and invite her to sit together at lunch. Kayla has a twin, Taylor, who is a bit controlling and doesn't want to welcome a newcomer, but after Roxie prevents another girl in the friend group, Quinn, from walking into traffic while distracted by her phone, the group welcomes her. Roxie loves art, and is allowed to paint a mural on her bedroom wall, so she wants to join art club. Since Roxie is trying to hide her parents from her classmates, she gets involved in some difficult situations, such as buying jeans at the mall with her credit card and lying to her mother when she gets the bill. The family is busy settling in and preparing for her mother's book launch, and Roxie takes advantage of these distractions to push the boundaries of what she is allowed to do. When she has a sleepover with Kayla and her friends, she takes a dare to walk to the local train station, and Theo runs off. Child Protective Services is involved, and her parents have to defend their ability to parent again. While things work out, there is also some sadness when Nash is clearly ready to retire, and Roxie's mom wants to send him away instead of keeping him as a home dog. Roxie continues to make some bad choices, but starts to see that she needs to embrace her parents instead of hiding them.
Strengths: It is always good to see books about children who move and try to react positively to change. It makes sense that Roxie wants to be judged on her own merits and wants to keep her parents' condition from her classmates, even if it isn't the best idea. Her interest in art adds some interest to the story, and young readers will understand Roxie's anxiety and her coping strategies. Kayla and the friend group are typical middle school girls who are trying to figure out how to fit in and get along with others. This is cowritten with Stacy Cercenka, a middle grade author and leader of the Iowa Department for the Blind, so there are lot of good details about the strategies the parents use to help with school communication, travel, and taking care of children. I don't like PDFs either, but hadn't realized that they are problematic for people with sight impairment because they are images that can't be read by text-to-speech apps, so I learned something!
Weaknesses: If Roxie were my own child, she would have been grounded until the end of time. I was surprised at how REALLY bad her choices were. Buying three pair of jeans at the mall without permission, lying about it, sneaking out with friends, endangering her brother, and burning a candle inside, with very bad consequences? As a parent, I wanted to see more consequences, and perhaps some therapy, since the mother was a psychologist herself.
What I really think: There are a few books about tweens with vision impairment, like Morris and Brown's Squint or Vrabel's A Blind Guide to Stinkville, but I can't think of any where the parents are navigating these challenges. The only book that's at all similar is the nonfiction The Sounds of Silence: Growing Up Hearing with Deaf Parents by Myron Uhlberg. Definitely an intriguing book.
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