Something Like Home
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A moving novel in verse in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family . . . only for them to find family in each other along the way. From the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.
“Trust me: this book will touch your heart." —Barbara O’Connor, New York Times bestselling author of Wish
Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack,
but it’s not like I brought a bunch of stuff.
How do you prepare for the unpreparable?
How do you fit your whole life in one bag?
And how am I supposed to trust social services
when they won’t trust me back?
Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space.
So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better and things will finally go back to the way they should be.
After all, how do you explain to others that you’re technically a foster kid, even though you live with your aunt? And most importantly . . . how do you explain that you’re not where you belong, and you just want to go home?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Latinx 11-year-old Laura Rodríguez Colón believes that it's her fault she was separated from her parents and sent to live with her aunt, Titi Sylvia, a "rich perfect stranger" who resides on the other side of Laura's Virginia county. If she hadn't called 911, she thinks, her parents wouldn't have been sent to rehab for substance reliance, and she wouldn't be staring down the barrel of an uncertain future with Titi Sylvia, whose emotionally closed-off nature makes Laura feel isolated. Though she'd rather be with her parents, she's elated when Titi Sylvia lets her keep the abandoned pup that Laura finds in town, which she names Sparrow. When Laura is told that she can't visit her parents in rehab, she resolves to train Sparrow as a therapy dog, because "Children may not be allowed in Harmonic Way... but apparently therapy dogs and their owners/ are." Laura's improvised training seems to go well, until a disastrous event imperils her hard work. In moving, approachable verse, Arango (Iveliz Explains It All) thoughtfully portrays Laura's guilt and the constant push-and-pull of her desire to be with her parents and her growing connection with Titi Sylvia. Abundant bird facts—which Laura learned on daily walks with her father—add sensitive insight into Laura's interpretation of family and loyalty. Ages 10–14.