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A review by aclopez6
A Soft Place to Land by Janae Marks
5.0
Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read an arc version of this book!
A Soft Place to Land initially appealed to me because of the author, Janae Marks. When I read From the Desk of Zoe Washington, I loved the writer’s style, and I was excited to read more. I am also trying to read a lot of upcoming middle-grade fiction as I prepare to switch up my guided reading curriculum for next year. Overall, highly recommend this book for a middle-grade audience, but the content is a bit too young for high schoolers.
This book centers on Joy, who dreams of growing up and writing movie scores. She takes piano lessons and is very passionate about her dream, but things are changing. Her house was almost foreclosed on, and Joy’s family has moved from a house into an apartment. However, there are a lot of positives with this shift! Joy almost immediately begins to make friends, which keeps this book on an upbeat track, while still recognizing the struggles Joy sees in her parents fighting over money, and Joy and her sister, Malia, adjusting to a smaller space. Throughout, we see small sacrifices our characters have to make. I appreciated how real the parents feel--they struggle repeatedly and work on their communication and issues but persist in the name of their kids. I thought they were very well written without taking away from Joy’s story.
A Soft Place to Land initially appealed to me because of the author, Janae Marks. When I read From the Desk of Zoe Washington, I loved the writer’s style, and I was excited to read more. I am also trying to read a lot of upcoming middle-grade fiction as I prepare to switch up my guided reading curriculum for next year. Overall, highly recommend this book for a middle-grade audience, but the content is a bit too young for high schoolers.
This book centers on Joy, who dreams of growing up and writing movie scores. She takes piano lessons and is very passionate about her dream, but things are changing. Her house was almost foreclosed on, and Joy’s family has moved from a house into an apartment. However, there are a lot of positives with this shift! Joy almost immediately begins to make friends, which keeps this book on an upbeat track, while still recognizing the struggles Joy sees in her parents fighting over money, and Joy and her sister, Malia, adjusting to a smaller space. Throughout, we see small sacrifices our characters have to make. I appreciated how real the parents feel--they struggle repeatedly and work on their communication and issues but persist in the name of their kids. I thought they were very well written without taking away from Joy’s story.