O'Connor, Barbara. Wish.

O'Connor, Barbara.  Wish. Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  2016    227p    $16.99  ISBN 978-0-374-30273-3     elem/ms  Realistic fiction  E-BN   

Charlemagne “Charlie” Reese is suddenly living in Colby, North Carolina, with Betha and Gus, an aunt and uncle she has never met before. Her dad, Scrappy, in in jail, and her mom won’t get off the couch. Charlie has her dad’s short temper and is not looking forward to living with a bunch of hillbillies in Colby. When Howard is made her “backpack buddy” at school and won’t leave her alone, she knows she is doomed. But Colby might not be as bad as she thinks. Charlie sees a stray dog she names Wishbone and decides she must catch him, saying she too knows what it’s like to be a stray. Charlie learns what love looks like in Colby: namely, Bertha and Gus, in their love for one another, and Howard’s way of seeing the best in people and helping Charlie catch Wishbone, even when her temper gets the best of her. Charlie makes the same wish every day and has been doing it for years, and even though it doesn’t come true the way she thought it would, in the end she gets her wish in a most unexpected place. This is a beautiful story for upper-elementary and middle-school students who want something realistic with a little drama but lots of love.              

Summary: Charlie’s dad is getting “corrected” and her mama won’t get off the couch, so she is forced to move to a hick town in North Carolina to live with an aunt and uncle she doesn’t even know. Can this be just what she needs for the wish she has been making every day since the fourth grade to come true?

Dysfunctional families-Fiction                                                                                   —Erin Daley

McInnes, Nicole. Brianna On The Brink.

McInnes, Nicole.  Brianna On The Brink.   Holiday House    2013  170p  $16.95  ISBN 978-0-8234-2741-3  hs  Realistic Fiction  VG-BN   

Brianna, pretty and popular, comes from a broken home.  Currently living with her sister Keisha and hanging out regularly with the in-crowd, she has freedoms for which she is ill-prepared.  One night, she picks up a man in a bar, and he dies during their sexual encounter.  Astounded, she prepares herself for her return to school, where her best friend, the ruthless rich girl Jules, rejects her.  Keisha also rejects her, and Brianna is suddenly homeless.  She is numb when she discovers that her one-night stand was with her English teacher’s husband.  Bri is even more surprised when the teacher, Jane Playne, shows up at a homeless shelter where Bri is staying and takes Bri home with her.  There she discovers forgiveness, family love, and acceptance the likes of which she has never known before.  The next conflict?  Bri is pregnant.  Jane must accept the triple conflict of her husband’s infidelity, his death, and Bri’s impregnation.  Both young women become newer and better versions of themselves.  What will interest young readers is the development of relationships and the contemporary plot, which has all of the requisites of a good story for young adults and high-school students: bullying, teen pregnancy, and female empowerment.  Author Nicole McInnes knows the voices of teenagers, and with her skills in producing narrative that is both exciting and poignant, she has a winner with this debut novel.   

Dysfunctional families, Teen pregnancy                      --Martha Squaresky

Waiting for normal. by Leslie Conner

Connor, Leslie. Waiting for normal.
Harper Collins, 2008, $17.89, 290p, 978-0-06-089088-9
Realistic fiction

Addie and her mother are moved into a tiny trailer on a busy corner under the elevated train in Schenectady, NY. Addie quickly settles in and makes friends with neighbors who run a mini-market across the street. Soula, while usually upbeat, is fighting the effects of her chemotherapy. treatment Addie misses terribly her ex-step-father Dwight and her two younger half-sisters who were taken from her mother due to neglect. Addie is used to being very resourceful at keeping herself fed when mother stays away from the trailer for days at a time. Addie’s visits with Dwight on school vacations show her a vision of normal that eventually becomes too painful for Addie to bear. The situation comes to a head when the trailer burns down. There is a happy new beginning in store for Addie.
A very believable story of abandonment, neglect, and the search for love and “normal”. The issues of neglect and a dysfunctional parent are not sensationalized nor trivialized.
Excellent read for middle school. JT