Review by Booklist Review
When Cora and her younger sister, Adare, find that someone broke in and vandalized their room at a shelter, their mother calls on a childhood friend, Willa, to help them out. Cora likes the stability and security Willa offers; her mother, on the other hand, is determined to stay only as long as necessary. Meanwhile, Cora struggles in school: her move to remedial math has given ammunition to the grade's resident mean girl, and she is sometimes frustrated by having to be responsible for Adare, who has a developmental disability. The bright spots in her life are tree climbing, her late father's tree book (a botanical journal), and new friend Sabina, a quirky collector of old letters, notes, and memos. Gradually, Cora begins to understand that a home is more than four walls and a door. Cora's first-person narrative highlights the instability of her life, and Sarno's descriptions of the world as Cora sees it rich and evocative without being overdone is particularly notable. A moving book about an all-too-common childhood experience, which is fairly uncommon in children's literature.--Scanlon, Donna Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sarno's debut novel relays the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of a family searching for a place to belong. Alongside their mother, 12-year-old Cora and her younger sister, Adare, have lugged their meager possessions from one Brooklyn address to another since their father's death. Now, living in a shelter, Cora muses, "We're homeless. For real." While her mother works long hours as a store clerk, Cora looks after keenly intuitive Adare, who was "born special" and constantly smiles but rarely speaks. Cora is a zealous tree climber and lover of all growing things; she treasures her Tree Book, in which her gardener father meticulously recorded his field notes, and she now documents the trees surrounding every place she lives. As Cora sees Brooklyn from a variety of perspectives (the trees she climbs, a shelter, a fancy high-rise) and her family looks for a place to stay, she considers the meanings of belonging and home. Sarno easily pulls readers into the tangled lives of her credible characters and their struggles to put down roots in this exploration of family and friendship, loss and resilience. Ages 8-12. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-7--Cora, her mother, and her younger developmentally disabled sister Adare have been on their own for awhile now, ever since the death of Cora and Adare's father. They've moved from their apartment to a homeless shelter and then to a dirty and unsafe placement. After seeing the placement, they move in temporarily with Mom's childhood friend Willa, who has an elegant apartment in New York City. Cora can finally focus on friendship, figuring out math, and climbing trees. But this housing situation can't last; Willa wants to determine what is best for the family, particularly for Adare. The narrator, Monika Felice Smith, works hard, but is only partially successful in voicing the book's characters. Cora's persona is well developed, but Adare has an annoyingly childish and sing-song voice that doesn't often match the words she is speaking. VERDICT A story rarely covered for intermediate readers that ultimately offers hope to those in a very difficult situation, as well as ample opportunity for other listeners to consider what life in such dire straits would be like.-Ann Brownson, formerly at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
After Coras father died six years ago, her familys financial situation deteriorated dramatically. Cora, her mother, and Coras developmentally disabled younger sister, Adare, cannot live on Moms meager salary; because her mother works fluctuating hours, Cora is responsible for Adares care. After losing their home, they begin living in an unsafe and unsanitary shelter. With no affordable housing available, Coras mother turns to a childhood friend, Willa, a prominent New York lawyer, for temporary refuge. Here they are safe. Can they be happy? Cora loves living in this elegant apartment, but Willas well-meaning attempt to manage their lives creates an unsustainable tension as her ideas clash with Coras mothers vision of what is best for her family. Cora is tired, so tired of trying to figure out where to be. She wants stability--to build a close friendship with a new classmate, to understand algebra--and the chance to pursue her own interests, but adult responsibilities keep intruding on her wishes. The insecurity of homelessness and the limited options of those living in poverty sear the pages of this thought-provoking debut about the meaning of home and the importance of family. betty carter (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Life is not going well for Cora.Ever since her Irish-immigrant father died six years ago, the 12-year-old, her Mexican-American mom, and her younger sister, Adare, who was "born special" and speaks little, have been living in a series of temporary homesand now they're in a grim Brooklyn shelter. Through it all Cora has persevered, getting her sister to and from school and charting (and climbing) the trees around where she's lived, keeping up her father's horticultural work. But she's struggling in math, bullied, friendless, and, after their shelter room is ransacked, homeless. After her mom's friend Willa takes them in, Cora begins to imagine a more stable lifebut living with Willa would take away what little autonomy her mom still has. Cora makes friends with a classmate who lives on a houseboat, rootless but not homeless, and each uses this friendship as a path to a more satisfying life. Cora's first-person narrative voice occasionally strays away from age-appropriate but never enough to diminish her poignanteven desperatesituation, as she strives to provide what Adare needs while chasing her own limited dreams. Even after they move into a "placement," a gritty complex that's too dangerous"somewhere you can't go after school on your own"to be a home, challenges realistically persist.Troubling, affecting, and ultimately uplifting, from a promising debut novelist. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.