In 2021, according the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
On any given day, over 391,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system and the number has been rising. Over 113,000 of these children are eligible for adoption and they will wait, on average, almost three years for an adoptive family.
53% of the children and youth who left foster care were reunited with their families or living with a relative; 25% were adopted.
More than 48,000 youth in U.S. foster care live in institutions, group homes, and other environments, instead of with a family.
53,500 children and youth were adopted in 2021
In 2021, 19,130 (9%) aged out of the U.S. foster care system, and a majority left without the emotional and financial support necessary to succeed in life that other children can receive within a family.
9% of children ages 6 to 12 and 8% of those ages 13 to 17 live with a grandparent. (Pew Research Center)
In the 30 books pictured, which I have read and recommend, the majority feature characters in foster care, a few are children "adopted" by family members, and some are legally adopted. Below I share my reviews of 14 of my most recently-read novels.
One for the Murphys; A Home for Goddesses and Dogs; The Great Gilly Hopkins; Give and Take; Locomotion; Peace, Locomotion; Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen; With Just One Wing; Red Butterfly; The Season of Styx Malone; Planet Earth is Blue; Counting by 7's; Every Shiny Thing; Three Pennies; Quaking ; Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus; And Then, BOOM!; All the Broken Pieces; All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook; Orbiting Jupiter; A List of Cages; Between the Lines; Love, Jacaranda; Compromised; The Road to Paris; The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven; Far from the Tree: Three Little Words; Ordinary Hazards
A Home for Dogs and Goddesses by Leslie Conner
“You’ll be all right. You come from strong.” (1) In the months after her death, Lydia Bratches-Kemp finds out just how true her mother’s words were.
Thirteen-year-old Lydia has experienced a lot of challenges in her young life. Her father left home when she was six, at the same time her mother became ill with a heart condition. Lydia helped take care of her for seven years until she died. But it wasn’t all sadness; her mother homeschooled her so they could spend time together making art and goddesses, collages from old photographs bought at a flea market.
When Lydia is taken in by her mother’s sister Bratches and her wife Eileen who live in the small town of Chelmsford, Connecticut, a town of farms and strong women and girls, she undergoes a myriad of new experiences. She attends a school where the twelve 8th graders, who have known each other and all the townspeople their whole lives, welcome her with open arms, especially Raya and Sari who show up on her doorstep on weekends and take her to visit every farm and teach her to snowshoe. She, Bratches, and Eileen live with the kind 90-something-year-old Elloroy, owner of their house, who is, in his words, “almost dead” and Soonie, his sweet, old greyhound.
And last there is Guffer, the dog whom Bratches, Eillen, and the reluctant Lydia adopt. “I wanted to stop them and ask., Are you sure? Sure you don’t want to wait and see how one rescue goes before you get yourselves into another? Not to liken myself to a dog, exactly. But I had been taken in.” (45) Lydia, by her own words was not a dog person, but as they train the “bad” dog she becomes more and more attached which gives her the bravery to stand up to the adult bully who threatens him. “It’d been twelve weeks since Aunt Brat had first driven me up Pinnacle Hill in her boxy car.… We’d [Guffer and I] arrived the same week; We’d both had our lives changed.” (311)
As she deals with secrets—hers and Bratches’; new family, friends and neighbors; pymy goats; a missing father, and her first kiss, she settles in as a member of this close community. “I soaked up the scene. There was something so easy, so right, about watching my friends peel off their boots and jackets in the front hall and something so everyday about Guffer coming to inspect their empty footwear.” (237)
But her love for Guffer also gives her the strength, supported by her new family, to face the adult bully who threatens him. “’Turns out I’m pretty strong,’ I told him.” (369)
“We three linked arms and plodded back toward the trail, relieved and still reveling. I held my women up; they held me up. ‘I am flanked by a pair of goddesses, Mom! They won’t let me down! I will never fall down!’” (352) -----
Give and Take by Elly Swartz
“My insides are filled with a missing that can’t be fixed with words.” (85) Twelve-year-old Maggie’s world seems to be filled with good-byes. It all began on the first worst day of her life—"Forgot Me Day,” the day her Nana forgot who Maggie was, and then the second worst day, the day Nana died. Maggie becomes anxious that she will forget what is special in her life, and she starts collecting mementos of small moments. She hides boxes under her bed and in her closet, boxes filled with gifts but also milk cartons and straws from lunches, sticks, rocks, anything that will help her remember.
When the family takes in a foster baby, Maggie knows it is temporary to give the baby a good start until she gets her forever family but Maggie hides away baby socks and diaper tabs. “A little something. To remember. So my memories don’t disappear.” (13) Baby Izzie is adopted and Maggie is filled with a “giant missing.”
When her secret is discovered, her parents send her to work with Dr. Sparrow, who helps her work toward “a heart big enough to love a lot and a brain healthy enough to let go.” (267)
During all this, Maggie meets a new friend, Mason, who joins their formerly all-girl trapshooting team; helps her little brother Charlie makes friends; finds—and loses—a pet turtle; and has to decide whether to tell a friend’s secret, a secret that could be hurtful to others, risking the loss of that friendship.
Maggie, who struggles with anxiety manifested through hoarding, joins her author-Elly-Swartz-sisters Frankie, who in Smart Cookie is dealing with the loss of her mother, and Molly who struggles with OCD in Finding Perfect in my heart. Their stories will help some young adolescents see their lives reflected and challenges honored and will give others the empathy to understand their peers. For the adult who read these novels, they may provide a flash of insight into those in our classrooms and families. ------
Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen by Niki Lenz
Bernice Buttman is anything but a model citizen. She is a bully, having grown up from the days when her four brothers bullied others on her behalf. However, being a bully is lonely and she decides she wants a friend, but the other fifth graders are scared of her, especially Oliver Stratts, the kid she has targeted for friendship. She does have one person in her corner, Ms. Knightley, the town librarian who sees the Bernice who has possibilities.
Bernice lives in the Lone Star Trailer Park where she sleeps on the sofa and her brothers share one bedroom; she has a mother who takes Bernice’s lunch money to have herself tattooed. But Bernice has a dream—to raise enough money by any means possible so she can go to Hollywood Hills Stunt Camp and become a famous stuntwoman.
When her mother and boyfriend leave home with their own plans for stardom, Bernice is sent to the picture-perfect town of Halfway to live with her Aunt Josephine, a nun. And as Ms. Knightley advises, “Bernice, I know you may not believe what I’m about to say, but this might be the best thing that’s ever happened to you…Going to a new place is like starting over. It’s like a clean slate.” (41)
As she settles in to her new town with the support of her aunt, Sister Marie Francis who teaches her to ride a horse, and Sister Angela-Clarence who only speaks in children’s book quotes (which actually make more sense than the two other Sisters give credit), Bernice decides that “things could be different in Halfway. I could be different.” (53). Unfortunately, her first day at school she unwittingly makes an enemy of the mayor’s daughter. But she also makes her first real friend.
New Bernice and Old Bernice battle each other as she learns what being a “model citizen” entails. She also learns that, even though her family doesn’t appear to change, her goals might change as she becomes, according to Ms. Knightley observation on a visit to Halfway, “different.”
What I loved most about the novel was the writing. Author Niki Lenz captures Bernice’s voice, while I may not have laughed out loud, I giggled inside through the book, not wanting to stop reading, but not wanting to finish. This book would be a great read-aloud, using passages as a mentor text for Voice. -----
With Just One Wing by Brenda Woods
Cooper Jaxon Garnette was a Safe Haven Baby; his birth mother brought him to the local hospital emergency room when he was one day old.
Coop was adopted by his first foster parents and raised in a loving household with two parents and, across town, two paternal grandparents, all extremely musically talented. Coop could not even carry a tune, but he knew he was loved. However, for eleven years he wondered how a mother could give a baby (him) away. He has unrelenting questions that he asks himself, “Where is she, somewhere close or far away? Does she ever think about me? Would I recognize her if I saw her? Would she recognize me?” (ARC 11)
Watching some bird eggs in his G-Pop’s tree and then climbing for a better look, the bird parents protect their eggs, divebombing Coop, and he falls and is in a coma. Finally released from the hospital with a broken arm and no basketball to keep him busy, he and his friend Zandi watch the birds become hatchlings and then nestlings and, finally, three of the four become fledglings, leaving the nest and learning to fly.
He and Zandi rescue the mockingbird baby born with only one wing and research how to care for and feed him. They grow to love Hop and builds a small Bird Sanctuary in G-Pop’s yard which he can watch from his cage and the deck.
But when Hop gets lose, is injured, and taken to a vet, they learn that it is illegal to keep a mockingbird caged. Coop and Zandi also understand that Hop needs other birds to help him learn to sing. They can follow the law and put Hop in a safe place if they relinquish him to a bird aviary run by the Yolanda, the Bird Lady. “’Thank you, Coop,’ Yolanda replied. ‘Giving up something we love because we know it’s the best thing to do takes courage.’” (ARC 154).
Even with all the unfortunate events, the summer experiences just may have helped Coop to understand why his birth mother may have done what she did. -----
The Season of Styx Malone by Kela Magoon
“Styx Malone didn’t believe in miracles, but he was one. Until he came along, there was nothing very special about life in Sutton, Indiana.” (1) The first page just keeps getting better until the last line seals the deal—“It all started the moment I broke the cardinal rule of the Franklin household: Leave well enough alone.” (1)
Kekla Magoon has been one of my favorite authors. One of the YA novels I recommend the most to high school, college, and even law school students is How It All Went Down. I have written about her middle school novel CamoGirl in “Books to Begin Conversations about Bullying [http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/books-to-begin-conversations-about-bullying-by-lesley-roessing], so I was excited to hear about her new novel The Season of Styx Malone.
Ten-year-old narrator Caleb Franklin and his eleven year old brother Booby Gene live in a small town and their father does not allow them to venture out from where everyone knows them and they are “safe.” Caleb’s goal is to get to the museum in Indy. And to be extraordinary, not “extra-ordinary” as he thinks his father is calling him.
Then the brothers meet a mysterious sixteen-year-old name Styx Malone, Yes, as in Greek mythology, where the River Styx separated the world of the living from the world of the dead. Malone may not be their transport from the dead to the living but it sure seems so. Styx is free from parental restraints and always has a plan that becomes bigger and better. “The moment felt like Saturday, like summer heat, like adventure…. It felt like the soft swish of corn tassels and being one step closer to an impossible dream…’One step closer to our happy ending.’” (116)
As the boys become more and more involved with him, providing the friendship it appears he is missing in his life, they learn that he is a foster child who has moved from home to home, family to family, and his life may not be as glamorous as it seems. “’Only person you can ever count on is yourself.’…There were lots of people I could count on…. But I got what Styx was saying: Freedom came with a price.” (154)
Many things changed the season Styx Malone “shook [their] world.” That summer did make a difference—to Styx himself and to expanding the world of the Franklins.
There were many interesting, delightful characters, including Cory Cromier, the eleven-year-old bully who loves babies and becomes a Franklin brothers’ ally, and Pixie, Styx’s magical ten-year-old foster sister. This book, with its short chapters, each ending with seductive lines. and prospective discussions of morality, ethics, responsibility, friendship, and family, would make a good read aloud for grades 5-8. -----
Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos
Nova, an adolescent with nonverbal autism, is locked in her own world with limited communication. She is able to open up this world with the help of her older sister Bridget, the one person who acknowledges her intelligence and takes care of her when their mother can’t. Nova and Bridget share a love for space and space exploration, and their knowledge is vast. As they are taken away from their mother and moved from foster home to foster home, Bridget looks forward to turning eighteen when she promised she will be able to take care of Nova on her own.
When the story begins, Bridget and Nova have run away from their last foster home, and Nova is has been placed in a new home with loving foster parents and their older daughter; they all want to get to know Nova, her limitations, but also her capabilities. Meanwhile Nova begins school, repeating sixth grade, experiencing endless testing (her social worker who has classified her as “severely mentally retarded”) and getting to know new peers in her special education room, each with their own challenges and abilities. The classmates bond, but Nova is desperately waiting for the Challenger launch with the first teacher aboard; Bridget has promised to find her so they can watch the launch together.
The story is told in alternating third person, the story of Nova’s life with Francine, Billy, and Joanie and school and first person which the reader views through Nova’s letters to Bridget—which are, in actuality, illegible. I found it very effective to read about people and events and then re-read them from Nova’s perspective.
Having read that the story incorporated the 1986 Challenger space shuttle launch, I began reading this novel with a feeling of trepidation. I assume that this might be experienced in a different way by readers of diverse ages. It is a moving story (have a tissue ready), and Nova becomes a character we can all champion as she experiences the disadvantages and finally the benefits of the foster system. Readers will learn a lot about space and our space program, but they will also learn how many times people are judged on assumptions.
In 2018 the CDC determined that approximately 1 in 59 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to a study by Boston University, about 30 percent of people diagnosed with ASD "never learn to speak more than a few words." Also, on any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States. Today’s children are dealing with multiple challenges, and many are in our classrooms. And that is why novels, such as Nicole Panteleakos' debut novel Planet Earth is Blue, belong in our school or classroom libraries. -----
Every Shiny Thing by Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison
In Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison’s new MG novel Every Shiny Thing readers follow the journey of two new friends from different types of lives as they discover themselves and how they can navigate their lives.
Lauren is a wealthy teen who goes to a Quaker school. She is very close to her brother Ryan but when he is sent to a boarding school for teens on the autism spectrum, Lauren is sure that he isn’t happy, that the school is not meeting his needs, and that her parents sent him away. She then realizes that all teens who need it can’t afford the help Ryan is getting and she designs a scheme to raise money, selling the “shiny things” that she feels her affluent family and friends don’t really need. Her scheme spirals out of control as she begins stealing items from stores, family, and friends, selling them on line, and the thrill of stealing takes over. She even involves her new friend Sierra.
Sierra’s father, a drug addict, is in jail; her mother, an alcoholic, who Sierra has cared for for years in a life of poverty, is also in jail. What she wants is her family; what she needs is a stable loving family—and a friend, but not a friend who gets her involved with her own addiction.
Sierra moves in next door to Lauren with her foster parents Carl and Anne, an interracial Quaker couple who are surviving the trauma of losing their own child. She pushes them away, anxious to get back to her old life, but “In the end, he [Carl] had me find the proof/ before the statement./ A new way to think.” (235) Sierra and Lauren’s friendship guides them in finding a new way of thinking. Sierra realizes she can love her mother but she can’t help her, and she can let Carl and Anne help her. “I know I can’t be your mom, Sierra,/ but I can be your Anne.” (333) Lauren realizes that she can stop worrying about Ryan who is happy in his new environment and she can’t save the world, but “I do know this: I’m not going to forget about Hailey or zone out when I walk past someone asking for money on the street. I won’t. Because someday, maybe, I’ll be able to do something more.” (353)
Lauren’s and Sierra’s narrations are written by each of the authors in their own unique style: Lauren’s narratives in prose and Sierra’s in free verse, styles which fit their lives and personalities. Their lives are populated by culturally diverse friends and their families as they traverse the Philadelphia I know so well. -----
Three Pennies by Melanie Crowder
"Most of us can rely on something good in our lives. Our parents' love. The constancy of a family pet. A pesky little sister or a know-it-all older brother and the perpetual flip-flop of siblings between affection and annoyance." But for the more than 400,000 children and adolescents living in foster care in the United States, many have nothing to rely on and many of them never lose the hope that a parent is waiting to reunite with them.
When Marin was four, her mother gave her up. By the time she was eleven and her mother had signed away her parental rights, she had lived in three foster homes where she was nothing more than a paycheck and two group homes; she had learned to become invisible; and she had never been loved. Dr. Lucy Chang had survived her own loss and was ready to open her heart to a child. But before she could adopt Marin, Marin had to stop planning to leave good to find her mother, the mother she was sure would want her. When Marin does find her mother and then discovered her mother's paper wishes, she learns that seven years before, not only did she wish …I was free," but more importantly, "I wish better for Marin than me."
The novel by Melanie Crowder, author of the wonderful historical verse novel Audacity, is short and beautifully written. The very short chapters would make the novel a good daily teacher read-aloud. -----
Quaklng by Kathryn Erskine
Quaking hits one of the most important topics in adolescent life—bullying—from all sides. Bullies are not only teenage boys (although there is one of those) and their followers but can be teachers, parents, and adults who bully each other, misusing their power over others. And bullies are bullies for a variety of reasons.
Quaking can serve as a map, illustrating ways to deal with bullies. The reader cares about Matt—possibly more than she does about herself—and her new Quaker family, who are her last chance at a family and who helps her value herself and find her voice. -----
And Then, BOOM! by Lisa Fipps
Children hunger for not only food, but love, safety, and security.
Despite not ever knowing his father and a mother who left for days, weeks, months at a time, eleven-year-old Joe Oak had all four—food, love, safety, and security—living with his British grandmother. But when his mother is arrested, grandmum puts the Gingerbread House up for bail. “And then” Mom fails to show for her court date, and “Boom!” it all falls apart. Joe and Grandmum are unhoused, living in their car, The Fishbowl, until Joe’s friend Nick tells him about a trailer for rent. They move in under the kind and helpful eye of the manager, Uncle Frank, and survive, despite a shortage of food, until Grandmum suddenly dies, leaving Joe on his own, dumpster diving for food.
With the help of his two best friends, Nick and future chef Hakeem, and a very caring and observant “superhero” teacher who creates a Magic Closet with food and clothing and makes sure the “Free & Reduced Meal” kids are no longer embarrassed, Joe manages to keep his secret although soon the hot water, his phone, and other utilities are turned off. He even sells his grandmother’s items to pay part of the rent.
“Friendship is being there to notice someone’s about to fall, to try to keep them from falling, to catch them when they fall or to cushion the blow when they do, to feel what they’re feeling, and to understand why they feel that way.” (50)
Bu when a tornado hits the trailer park, and Joe and his three rescue dogs don’t make it to the shelter, Joe is lifted up, flying through the air, and his secret is revealed. Worried because of his friend Nick’s negative experiences with short-term foster care, Joe (and his dogs) luck out with a family who lives on a farm and really, really cares for children, regaining not only food, but love, safety, and security.
“When you’re so used to doing everything for yourself, you forget that others will help. if you let them.” (41)
But his therapist Amy tells Joe, “It doesn’t matter where you start [to rebuild] As long as you start.” (234)
“There are three kinds of people. Some are hope-planters. Some are hope-squashers. Some are hope restorers. “ (90) Luckily Joe’s life became filled with hope-planters and hope-restorers.
Like Lisa Fipp’s STARFISH, there are countless children who will see their lives or part of their lives reflected in this verse novel, but this book is also for their peers who, like Nick and Hakeem, can offer friendship and support. But this book also needs to be read by educators who have these children who need food, clothing, love, safety, and security but are hidden in plain sight in our classrooms. -----
Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes
My very first year of teaching, a student’s father called me and accused me of wasting his son’s time with poetry. I listened, aghast, but did not know quite what to say. I wish I had had Nikki Grimes’ novel, Between the Lines, to quote Mr. Winston, the librarian as he explains to Darrian why he should learn about all sorts of writing, even poetry. “Because poetry, more than anything else, will teach you about the power of words.” And Grimes in her newest novel, to be released in February 2018, shows us the power of words—to heal, to strengthen, to discover. Like Bronx Masquerade, this novel takes place in Mr. Ward’s English classroom where he holds Open Mike Fridays and students work towards a Poetry Slam (and where BM character Tyrone makes guest appearances).
Mr Ward’s eleventh grade class is a microcosm of the outside world—Black, Brown, and White and maybe in-between. The reader views the eight students through the lens of Darrian, a Puerto Rican student who lives with his father and has dreams of writing for The New York Times because, “Let’s face it, some of those papers have a bad habit of getting Black and Brown stories wrong.…But I figure the only way to get our stories straight is by writing them ourselves.” So Darrian joins Mr. Ward’s class to learn about words. He does learn the power of words, but he also learns about is his classmates as they learn about each other and about themselves through their narratives, their free writes, and the poetry they share. There is Marcel, whose dad was in jail just long enough to ruin his life; Jenesis, a foster child in her 13th placement; Freddie who takes care of her niece and her own alcoholic mom; Val whose immigrant father was a professor in his native land and now works as a janitor; Li, whose Chinese parents want a strong, smart American girl; Kyle whose defective heart makes him fearless and a mentor to Angela who is afraid she is not enough, and Darrian whose mother died of cancer “half past 36.”
But these students, as the students in our classrooms, are more than their labels. As Tyrone explains abut his class the year before, “Before Open Mike, we were in our own separate little groups, thinking we were so different from each other. But when people started sharing who they were through their poetry, turned out we were more alike than we were different.” And Darrian finds out that each word can be unique and special, as Li says about poetry, but also a newspaper story “can be beautiful, especially if it’s true.” Truth is what these characters and novel reveals.
A strength of the novel is the unique voice of each character; I especially felt for Jenesis who was aging out of the foster system. Nikki Grimes had to write not only their stories but the unique poetry of each character. And the reader sees the growth of the characters through their interactions and poetry as they discover each other and come together, the boys discovering “Hope,” and the girls telling what “We Are.” -----
Love, Jacaranda by Alex Flinn
“I’ve been alive sixteen years, and this is the first time since my granny died that anyone has ever noticed me.” (10)
Jacaranda is a high school junior and works as a bagger at Publix in Florida. Her mother is in prison for attempted murder and, after her aunt refused to care for her, Jacaranda started going through the foster system. Her future goals are to graduate high school and possibly become a Publix manager one day. But as of now her goal is to get a solo in her high school spring concert.
When a customer asks her to sing, she sings the Publix jingle and is recorded by another customer. The video goes viral, and Jacaranda’s life changes. An anonymous benefactor sees the video and sponsors her to a prestigious arts school in Michigan where she realizes that her dreams can be much bigger.
The reader lives with Jackie, as she now calls herself, through her daily emails to her sponsor as she navigates her new world, taking nothing for granted—real meals, new clothes, friends who help her as she also helps them, mentors, visits to New York City, even jealous classmates, and ever-widening opportunities. She loves everything about her new life and doesn’t take anything for granted. “Do you know what I love most as MAA? You might think it’s the surroundings or the people or the opportunities. I love all those things. But the best thing is the predictability…. I didn’t have that type of predictability in foster care, and I sure didn’t have it with my mother.” (253)
And she even has a wealthy boyfriend—a wealthy, nice, compassionate boyfriend. But as she fits in and earns roles in the school musicals, Jackie constantly worries that Jarvis and her new friends will no longer accept her if they find out she is poor and her mother is in prison. “It was always so shameful being poor, even though it’s a matter of luck when you’re a kid.” (131) Jackie tries to keep her background and her mother’s situation a secret even as she meets a classmate who is brave enough to share her own past homelessness.
Reading Jacaranda’s story through her emails to her benefactor lets readers live through not only her linear story but learn about teachers, her past, and thoughts that may not be accessible in even a first person story narrative. It also allows for short read-alouds at the beginning of ending of a class period. Alex Flinn’s new novel tells a story of poverty, acceptance, resilience, and relationships. -----
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
Melissa Taylor was their mother. That is what Grace. Maya, and Joaquin have in common. But it is enough to make them "family" when they meet as teenagers? All three were given up at birth or shortly thereafter: Grace to a loving middle-class family; Maya to a wealthy family who then had their own biological child—and their own problems; and Joaquin to a lifetime of foster homes.
Then 16-year-old Grace has her own baby, and after her child Milly is adopted, Grace yearns to finds her biological mother.
When the three siblings meet, they immediately bond and help each other, not only find the part of their identity they thought missing, but they help each other fit into their present families and lives and discover that it is possible to have two families and feel complete. Maya is able to accept her place as the only brunette in a family of tall redheads and forgive a mother who is an alcoholic; Joaquin is ready to value himself and trust enough to let himself be adopted; and Grace can forgive herself for giving her baby a life apart from her.
I laughed and cried (a lot) and did not want this story to end. These are characters who get under your skin as soon as you meet them.
Far from the Treewon the 2001 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. -----
Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes (memoir)
Where do memories hide? They sneak into Hard-to-reach crevices, and nestle quietly until some random thought or question burrows in, hooks one by the tail, and pulls. Finally, out into the light It comes Sheepishly. (304)
Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carry, said in a speech, “You don’t have to tell a true story to tell the truth.” In Bridging the Gap, I wrote that a memoir is how the memoirist remembers the events—triggered by sights, smells, conversations, incidents—tempered by time, life, and reflection. Ordinary Hazards is Ms Grimes’ life, as remembered and reconstructed, from 1950 through high school, a life of hazards but also awakenings, the story of the birth and growth and dreams of a writer. “Somehow, I knew writing could take me places.” (230)
Written in haunting free verse, the author takes readers through a life of foster homes, separation from her sister, a schizophrenic alcoholic mother and an abusive stepfather, too many residences and schools to keep track of, multiple visits to various hospitals for diverse reasons, and neighborhood gangs, pain and loneliness, as “the ghosts of yesterday come screaming into the present without apology…” (9)
But readers are also introduced to a loving foster family, the refuge of libraries, relatives and girlfriends and God, and finally the black music and dance performances, authors, and speakers who opened her world to possibilities. Grimes was finally reunited with her older sister Carol, her father and his appreciation for the arts, and a teacher who pushed her to write more and better. By high school she had learned I’ve been tested, though, and already know on my own, that I’m a survivor. (228)
This reading engaged my heart, and I felt honored to witness the memories and reflections of a favorite children’s and YA author. -----
While all these novels can be read as a whole-class text or individually, reading 4-5 of them in Book Clubs can allow a safe, private space for thoughtful—and sometimes personal, discussions.