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

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

Title: My Most Excellent Year: a  novel of love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park
Author: Steve Kluger
Publisher: Speak (February 19, 2009)
Paperback: 416 pages
ISBN: 978-0142413432
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Synopsis from Booklist

In his first novel for young readers, Kluger revisits themes in his adult titles: baseball, romantic sparring, and social activism. Boston teens T. C. and Augie are such close friends that their families acknowledge them as brothers. Alejandra has recently arrived from Washington, D.C., where her father served as a Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Written in multiple voices and nontraditional formats, including instant messages and school assignments, Kluger’s crowded, exuberant novel follows the three high-school freshman through an earth-shaking year in which musical-theater-obsessed Augie realizes that he is gay, Alejandra reveals her theatrical talents to disapproving parents, and T. C. tries to make a deaf child’s greatest wish come true. At the center are heart-pulling romances (even a few among adults) and a broadening sense of what family means.

My thoughts: 
The story centers around an 11th grade English assignment for Ms. LaFontaine's class, and the three friends, T.C. Keller, Augie Hwong and Alejandra Perez decide to tell their story together about their "most excellent year." Through letters, IMs, essays and email, the three talk about their 9th grade year. The story is told by the three of them, but the voices sound somewhat alike, so it's helpful that each chapter identifies the name of the storyteller. I found the characters likeable and although the different love stories were predictable, I did find the relationships authentic and I especially enjoyed the growing relationship between T.C. and the six-year-old Hucky saccharine sweet, yet  lovely.

T.C. is the baseball fan and civil rights warrior. After he lost his mother at six, he befriended Augie and the two became brothers, even to the point where they both call T.C.'s dad Pop and Augie's parents Mom and Dad. They each have their own beds in each others' houses and T.C. is the one that accepts Augie with all his eccentricities and diva-ness. T.C. is totally in love with Ale as well as the deaf foster child, Hucky.

Augie is the Ethel Merman wannabe, the thespian and musical theatre diva. He has parents who accept him as a gay teen, even before he officially "comes out." He too is in love with Hucky, as well as Andy Wexler.

Alejandra is the former Mexican ambassador's daughter who moves to Brookline, Massachusetts during her freshman year. She is connected to Augie through the theatre and connected to T.C. through their interest in Manzanar and JFK.

The story is unbelievable at times, but it's ok to believe in magic and I didn't have a problem with that, especially when Kluger actually has a real website for the characters. The different interests will appeal to different readers for multiple reasons, and that is the true appeal of this book.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Young Adult
208 pages
Wendy Lamb Books (July 14, 2009)



My rating: 5 of 5 stars

6th grader Miranda lives in New York City in 1978 with her mother, and carries around a battered copy of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, her security blanket and compass. When she receives a  series of cryptic notes about something that will happen in her future, she starts watching the people around her, both her friends, and especially the odd laughing man that sleeps near her building.

Part mystery, part historical fiction (yes, the 70's are historical fiction to twelve year olds), part science fiction, When You Reach Me is a fun romp of enough interesting subplots to keep the reader guessing. My favorite subplot is the preparations that Miranda and her mom's boyfriend make to prepare Miranda's mom for her turn at the $20,000 Pyramid. I forgot how much I loved the game show, and especially Dick Clark's banter with the contestants before the final round. Thank goodness for The Game Show Network.