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A review by librarylaura
A Soft Place to Land by Janae Marks
5.0
I've been eagerly anticipating reading "A Soft Place To Land" because I so enjoyed "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" last year. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC to read and review.
I highly recommend "A Soft Place to Land." It's so well written that I could have finished it in one sitting (if I had stayed up past my bedtime) and all of the characters felt real and relatable. Each of the kids we meet has their own backstory, which provides several points of connection for readers. This book does what Janae Marks does best, which is to take a kid-friendly dive into hard issues that impact families everyday.
Joy says, "Yeah, sometimes I feel like someone took a slingshot and shot me high into the air, and now I'm waving my arms and trying to find a soft place to land. You know?" ...That's a great way to describe what dealing with a big life change feels like for all of us.
In A Soft Place To Land, Joy is grappling with the fact that her family has just sold their home and moved into an apartment due to her dad's job loss. This book hits home personally for me in a few ways. First of all, we had to sell a house and move in with my grandparents when I was a teenager, and that was a challenging change at a pivotal time for me. I could relate to some of Joy's feelings and experiences. I also work with a ministry now that provides resources for people in job transition, so there's another connection to my own life. The number of job losses and turnovers in the U.S. averaged 21.7 million annually, so think about how many kids are impacted by stories like Joy's each year!! And families have to move and make changes for lots of other reasons too. Kids need the message of this book.
Ultimately, Joy learns that it's not a place that's the most important, but the people. She makes some new friends, learns some lessons, and gains some perspective on her family's situation. And I think readers of all ages will relate to her desire to find a "soft place to land."
I highly recommend "A Soft Place to Land." It's so well written that I could have finished it in one sitting (if I had stayed up past my bedtime) and all of the characters felt real and relatable. Each of the kids we meet has their own backstory, which provides several points of connection for readers. This book does what Janae Marks does best, which is to take a kid-friendly dive into hard issues that impact families everyday.
Joy says, "Yeah, sometimes I feel like someone took a slingshot and shot me high into the air, and now I'm waving my arms and trying to find a soft place to land. You know?" ...That's a great way to describe what dealing with a big life change feels like for all of us.
In A Soft Place To Land, Joy is grappling with the fact that her family has just sold their home and moved into an apartment due to her dad's job loss. This book hits home personally for me in a few ways. First of all, we had to sell a house and move in with my grandparents when I was a teenager, and that was a challenging change at a pivotal time for me. I could relate to some of Joy's feelings and experiences. I also work with a ministry now that provides resources for people in job transition, so there's another connection to my own life. The number of job losses and turnovers in the U.S. averaged 21.7 million annually, so think about how many kids are impacted by stories like Joy's each year!! And families have to move and make changes for lots of other reasons too. Kids need the message of this book.
Ultimately, Joy learns that it's not a place that's the most important, but the people. She makes some new friends, learns some lessons, and gains some perspective on her family's situation. And I think readers of all ages will relate to her desire to find a "soft place to land."