A review by pdestrienne
The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

A book that (maybe unconsciously) owes a debt to Perks of Being a Wallflower, but is wholly its own. A book that, just in reading it, feels like it was hard to write. Rowan is struggling so much to keep his sense of self or learn who he is, and my heart ached for him. The friendship with Sophie and the subtle but important support from Mr. B made it bearable. Not a typically structured uplifting middle grade story of coming to terms with identity, but rather a quiet, personal, nuanced journey on the page that shows the deep impact of trauma without dramatizing it.