Review by Booklist Review
Biracial 13-year-old Katie is tired of fast moves, running out of food before child support comes, and sleeping in the guest room when her dad and his new wife have two empty bedrooms upstairs. In this memoir in verse, the author recounts her family's six weeks in an extended-stay motel. Filled with subtle early 2000s references and pangs of poverty and hunger, this book will resonate with middle-grade readers who want to know that someone has come out on the other side with their wings unclipped and their voice intact. The blank verse structure allows the reader to fly through the pages and relate deeply to the pressures of the protagonist, though the interiority often lacks perspective. The school story (including a boyfriend who barely exists on the page) is a faded gray backdrop of this recounting, showcasing the way temporary homelessness can make everything feel like background noise. Van Heidrich's work is ideal for readers who enjoy real-world stories that read like fiction and don't shy away from struggle.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This clear-eyed verse memoir by debut author Van Heidrich follows the "in-between time" during which she lived in a motel with her single mother and younger siblings in the early 2000s. After attending her grandfather's funeral in East St. Louis over winter break, 13-year-old Van Heidrich and her family arrive home in Atlanta to discover they've been evicted from their apartment, forcing them to move into a motel. Once winter break ends, Van Heidrich and her siblings return to school, where they try pretending that everything is normal, even though "going back to school/ from this rather abnormal place/ feels apocalyptic." Friendship and romantic conflicts, and her father's recent whirlwind marriage to a woman Van Heidrich barely knows, incite further emotional turmoil. As Van Heidrich shuffles between school, her father's sterile new house in the suburbs, and the cramped motel room that she currently calls home, she confronts questions of identity and navigates anxiety regarding an uncertain future. With sincerity and care, Van Heidrich skillfully depicts the complexities of housing insecurity, financial precarity, and adolescent growing pains via lyrical text in this unflinching yet hopeful read. Ages 9--13. (Jan.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
In this memoir in verse, Van Heidrich recalls the time when her family, whose housing situation had always been precarious, experienced homelessness. Her mother moves thirteen-year-old Katie and her two younger siblings into a hotel, where they try to maintain a sense of normalcy while occupying a single room. Every other weekend, the children go from the hotel to their father and stepmother's house, where there is more stability but also tension. School provides a haven, though Katie doesn't share her situation with her classmates. The first-person, present-tense immediacy of the poems ("My siblings and I / are three volcanoes, / though we are not the same / in how we erupt, / let alone how often") is complemented by the emotional distance Van Heidrich as the adult author brings to the story. Though she relates the events in the voice of a young adolescent, she also widens the perspective, allowing Katie to empathize with her parents and recognize that they are fighting their own demons. The story concludes on a hopeful but clear-eyed note: "I want to be grateful, but / I am also frustrated / and angry, / though that doesn't feel right." Van Heidrich doesn't have all the answers, but she reaches an emotional inflection point that she shares with readers. (c) Copyright 2023. 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
In a stunning debut, Van Heidrich recounts living in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, with her mother and two younger siblings. Their landlord promised to take care of things while they were in East St. Louis attending her grandfather's funeral. Instead, 13-year-old Katie and her family return to no electricity, a tank full of dead fish, and their dog locked in her crate, whimpering, and covered in her own waste. They must move again--and quickly. As the family settles into a single hotel room, school provides relief and continuity but also a source of worries: Will anyone realize she's now living outside the district? Will her friends discover the truth? Biweekly visits with her father only further Katie's sense of being in an in-between place, heightened by questions of identity: Her mother is Black; her father is White, and her stepmother, whose English is limited, is from Thailand. As her mother bounced between jobs and states in search of new opportunities, Katie strived to support her, suppressing her own emotions. But her mother's avoidance of the reality that she cannot provide for her children makes it increasingly difficult for Katie to remain silent about her feelings. Complex character development will engage readers, and vivid descriptions of the physical landscape bring the text to life. Van Heidrich masterfully describes her childhood emotions as well her mother's confusing choices and mental health struggles with compassion and nuance. Stellar writing, perfect pacing, and a sophisticated treatment of universal themes make this a must-read. (Verse memoir. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
