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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
This is a heartbreaking yet wonderful book. I loved it, but expected nothing less from Lunda Mullaly Hunt. She is such a great author!
3 1/2 stars for this short and sweet novel that ALMOST made me want to become a foster parent. Carley's voice was so authentic and her fears so real, Hunt must have had some experience with damaged children. I felt so much admiration for Julie Murphy, the fictional foster mother; the world needs more people with that much love to give.
My goodness does this book have all the feels! Carly is taken from her mom after there is an incident with her mom and her step-dad. Carly is hurt and her mom is seriously injured.
She is placed with the Murphy family for her foster care. In this home, Carly sees love like she never knew could exist. She sees a mom who loves her kids, even when the mess up. She sees a dad who is actually in the picture and loves both his wife and his children. She goes to school and makes friends. But she does still have a mom, and Mrs. Murhpy is not her mom. What a struggle!
Read this book at home with tissues nearby, you will need them!
She is placed with the Murphy family for her foster care. In this home, Carly sees love like she never knew could exist. She sees a mom who loves her kids, even when the mess up. She sees a dad who is actually in the picture and loves both his wife and his children. She goes to school and makes friends. But she does still have a mom, and Mrs. Murhpy is not her mom. What a struggle!
Read this book at home with tissues nearby, you will need them!
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved this book and can't keep it on the shelf in the library. Kids obviously love it too!
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
heart wrenching in ways i never expected, Carley is funny, brave, driven, caring, and fierce. I didn’t want to book to end
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book makes me cry every time. I love Carley's character development so much and her interaction with Julie Murphy.
*Spoilers*
I wish she could have stayed with the Murphy's, but it is a realistic ending.
*Spoilers*
I wish she could have stayed with the Murphy's, but it is a realistic ending.
Well, for a middle grade book, this is a good one. I have to admit that I enjoyed the first half better than the latter, but it worked out (or my feelings about the book might be a better way to put it) in the end. Overall I give this a 3.5 but rounded up.
I enjoyed most of this book - although the writing clearly isn't as clean or sophisticated as what Hunt pulls of later in Fish In A Tree, the emotional work is there. However, the end. Oh, the end. It flat-out ruined the entire book for me. Spoilers!
Before the book begins, Carley's mother has married Dennis, an abusive man. Carley believes that she knows how to get rid of Dennis - although he hits her mother, he hasn't ever hit her. Carley thinks that if she can provoke him into doing so, her mother will wake up to how awful he is, dump his butt, and the two of them will live happily ever after. Except when Carley does provoke him, and Dennis does lunge for her, Carley's mother does something god-awful: she holds Carley down so that she can't get away from Dennis, who proceeds to beat them both.
For the bulk of the book, Carley is adjusting to living with a wonderful foster family. But toward the end, she's forced to reconcile with her mother, for the following reason: after holding Carley down so that her husband could beat her, her mother changed her mind and shoved Dennis away. So... byegones! Literally, this is how the events are presented in the book. It is presented that her mother's behavior is somehow okay, because in the end she did stop Dennis. Carley is then sent to Vegas to live with her mom again, who is almost certain to welcome Dennis back with open arms, because that's how abuse works.
I am not a person who very often says things like "Think of the message you're sending the children!" because, well, I was a child, and I always thought that was dumb. But think for a second. If you're a child in abusive situation, how is it going to feel to see that everyone, even Carley's wonderful new foster mother, wants her to go back to her mom? What is this book saying about the forgiveness children owe their parents? Parents who literally hold them down to curry their abusive partner's favor?
I think Fish In A Tree was great and for that reason I'll keep reading Hunt's work, but this is going in the do-not-recommend pile.
Before the book begins, Carley's mother has married Dennis, an abusive man. Carley believes that she knows how to get rid of Dennis - although he hits her mother, he hasn't ever hit her. Carley thinks that if she can provoke him into doing so, her mother will wake up to how awful he is, dump his butt, and the two of them will live happily ever after. Except when Carley does provoke him, and Dennis does lunge for her, Carley's mother does something god-awful: she holds Carley down so that she can't get away from Dennis, who proceeds to beat them both.
For the bulk of the book, Carley is adjusting to living with a wonderful foster family. But toward the end, she's forced to reconcile with her mother, for the following reason: after holding Carley down so that her husband could beat her, her mother changed her mind and shoved Dennis away. So... byegones! Literally, this is how the events are presented in the book. It is presented that her mother's behavior is somehow okay, because in the end she did stop Dennis. Carley is then sent to Vegas to live with her mom again, who is almost certain to welcome Dennis back with open arms, because that's how abuse works.
I am not a person who very often says things like "Think of the message you're sending the children!" because, well, I was a child, and I always thought that was dumb. But think for a second. If you're a child in abusive situation, how is it going to feel to see that everyone, even Carley's wonderful new foster mother, wants her to go back to her mom? What is this book saying about the forgiveness children owe their parents? Parents who literally hold them down to curry their abusive partner's favor?
I think Fish In A Tree was great and for that reason I'll keep reading Hunt's work, but this is going in the do-not-recommend pile.