Just Under the Clouds

Description:

Can you still have a home if you don't have a house? In the spirit of The Truth About Jellyfish and Fish in a Tree comes a stunning debut about a family struggling to find something lasting when everything feels so fleeting.

Always think in threes and you'll never fall, Cora's father told her when she was a little girl. Two feet, one hand. Two hands, one foot. That was all Cora needed to know to climb the trees of Brooklyn.

But now Cora is a middle schooler, a big sister, and homeless. Her mother is trying to hold the family together after her father's death, and Cora must look after her sister, Adare, who's just different, their mother insists. Quick to smile, Adare hates wearing shoes, rarely speaks, and appears untroubled by the question Cora can't help but ask: How will she find a place to call home? 

After their room at the shelter is ransacked, Cora's mother looks to an old friend for help, and Cora finally finds what she has been looking for: Ailanthus altissima, the "tree of heaven," which can grow in even the worst conditions. It sets her on a path to discover a deeper truth about where she really belongs. 

Just Under the Clouds will take root in your heart and blossom long after you've turned the last page.

My Thoughts:

I like the last sentence of the description by the publisher "Just Under the Clouds will take root." It is heart breaking and sweet and I cannot help but root for these characters. Cora, as the big sister who must be older than she wants to be has so much hurt and pain that she must swallow and I just wanted to yell at the mother to wake up!!! I know that when adults are sad and barely holding it together, it is ever more difficult for children. I also know that when adults cannot get their sadness under control, sometimes other adults need to step in to take care of the children, especially as they leave middle school and go to high school. I just felt like if the mom didn't really look at Cora, and try to understand what she was hiding, she would lose her within a few years. 

Perhaps that is why this story got so rooted in me. I could see the future for this little family and I just hoped that by the end of the book, I would be reassured that the future I could see was not going to come to pass. That kind of dread, waiting for the third strike, makes this kind of reading both gripping and daunting. 

This is a solid middle level read that will appeal to both males and females. I personally chose this to fulfill my Goodreads summer June challenge for It's the End of the World: Read a book about the end of the world as we know it. For Cora, this is the end of the world. Her floating, untethered existence, her feet anchored when all she wants to do is climb, the letters that do not turn into numbers, the loss of a father, these are all part of Cora living at the end of the world. This is not a dystopia. This is real life shoving your head under the water.

Digital advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review