The Decoding of Lana Morris

I’m so glad to have found these wonderful writers. Tom McNeal of course is the author of the ethereally beautiful To Be Sung Underwater and Laura McNeal, Tom's wife, is also the author of a number of prize-winning books (see her oeuvre delineated on their website, here). This collaboration by them for young adults has a plotline I normally would eschew, as it involves an occult element. However, in the right hands - like theirs - a bit of magic can be enchanting.

Lana Morris is a sixteen-year-old foster child who lives with four other foster children in the home of Veronica and “Whit” Winters. Lana's four foster siblings, Tilly, Carlito, Alfred, and Garth are “snicks;” i.e., SNKS or Special Needs Kids. Lana’s foster parents show more are a bit “special” themselves: Veronica is an “ice queen” who clearly is into fostering for the money, and Whit thinks that fostering children includes fostering a sexual desire in Lana for him. Lana struggles with her attraction for Whit in spite of his position in her life and their fifteen-year age difference, but Whit has no such scruples.

While at first, Lana is appalled to be living with "snicks," she comes to love them, and finds that she assesses the goodness of others - including the “semi-handsome” boy next store - by how they treat her foster-siblings. Lana wants to make all of their lives better, but doesn’t know how, until a serendipitous visit to an antiques store gives her what she needs to make her life go “from grim to good.”

Evaluation: I love these authors. They have taken topics I normally would avoid, and made a book that provides a stellar reading experience. It goes without saying that featuring protagonists with special needs is a rarity, and their portrayals ensure that you love each of the kids in the book as individuals. Especially noteworthy is the quality of the dialogue among the adults, the snicks, and the other teens. Will I be chasing down more of their backlists? Absolutely! show less

Again, the McNeals, with the great characters and the interesting situations. I loved the premise that what Lana draws comes to life.

What happens when foster child Lana Morris buys a drawing book in which everything she draws comes true? She quickly learns that one has to be very careful what one wishes for. I liked the book, but I have to admit, I don't understand the title at all. I don't understand how the decoding comes in.

Lana has been bumped from foster home to foster home most of her life. In her current situation, she lives with several special needs kids, a domineering foster mother, and a foster father that she begins to have feelings for. She loves to draw, so when she discovers a kit filled with fancy drawing paper, she's ecstatic. What she doesn't know is that everything she draws ends up happening in real life. Once this is discovered, she looks for a way to make all of the foster kids happy.

Lana is stuck in the foster home from hell with several children with developmental disabilities, a foster mother who hates her, and a foster dad she thinks she is in love with -- who spends a lot of time flirting with her. A quirky story.

A great read. A story that teaches compassion. I teared up during parts of the book. I found myself cheering for some of the characters.