Something Like Home

This is a moving novel in verse written for middle-school-age children, dealing with foster care. As the novel opens, Laura is en route to her aunt’s apartment, accompanied by a social worker from DSS. Her parents are in rehab, as a result of Laura calling 9-1-1 when she found them unresponsive due to drug overdoses. Now Laura is with an aunt she doesn’t even know, and she feels guilty for causing this mess.

My heart broke for Laura. But she is a resilient child, clearly intelligent but confused by her situation. Her aunt, who is a doctor, tries her best, but is not used to having children near her and had been estranged from her sister (Laura’s mother) for some time. Aunt Titi must learn how to express her feelings for Laura, and show more Laura needs to learn to trust her aunt.

Laura finds herself in a new school and has trouble making friends. She doesn’t expect to be here long enough to forge the kind of friendships she had “at home.” When she finds a neglected and abandoned puppy, however, she begins to open up, making a friend, and formulating a plan for reuniting with her parents. Most importantly, she begins to speak up to the court-appointed guardian and to her aunt and insists that they listen to her point of view when formulating a plan for her care. Brava, Laura! show less

Trigger Warnings: Foster care, abandonment, parental drug use

Twelve-year-old Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: to do whatever it takes to live with her parents again. She’s okay with living with her aunt - but only temporarily. So when Laura finds a puppy, she begins to train him as a therapy, hoping to use his skills as an in to her parent’s treatment center. Maybe Sparrow will help her parents get better so they can all be together again.

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for pitties so when I saw the pittie on this cover, I was immediately drawn to it. And, I love me a novel in verse. I also didn’t recognize the author until I was getting ready to read it - but Iveliz Explains It All ripped by heart out last year. As soon as I show more registered it was that author, I knew I was going to be in for a good book!

As with her other book, Something Like Home isn’t an easy read, but it’s a needed one. It tells a story of a young girl separated from her parents by foster care because of their drug use, who, even though they’re neglectful of her when they use, still very much love their daughter. It shows the difficulty of not only that relationship but also what that was like for the aunt (Laura’s mom’s sister).

There’s amazing growth in this story of multiple characters, but Laura’s were my favorite. She had two unexpected relationships - one with the dog Sparrow, and one with a classmate, Benson. Sparrow and Laura’s journey was adorable and cute and shows the love that happens between a pet and their owners. Benson’s relationship with Laura was very organic, especially in the sense that there was a craving for a best friend, but that was hard for both because of previous wounds.

Though this is targeted for the Middle Grade readers, I highly recommend this to all as Laura’s story is sure to tug at your heartstrings, no matter your age. show less

Ooooof, right in the feels. A beautiful book about Laura, suddenly moving in with an aunt she does not know after a crisis in her home. And about Titi Silvia, a doctor making a home for a kid who needs a place to be and an unexpected puppy, rescued and now learning to be a therapy dog. And about Benson, an immediate friend with sickle-cell and a delightful pug. Great characters, emotional storyline that is so relevant right now, and a lot of dog love.

After making a 911 call, Laura finds herself living with her aunt - Titi Silvia - instead of her parents, and she is desperate to get back to her old life. But she can neither see her parents at rehab nor call them, and has to settle for writing letters. Meanwhile, she tries to figure out her aunt's house rules, and deal with a fancy new school. When she finds a dog, her aunt helps her get help for him, and even lets her keep him, and Laura starts training him to be a therapy dog - because even though kids aren't allowed to visit the rehab facility, therapy dog teams are.

All the adults in Laura's life are acting like this change might be permanent, and good, but they won't answer Laura's questions. At school, she makes just one friend, show more Benson, who has sickle cell disease, and whose old friends dropped him. After Laura visits him at the hospital, smuggling her dog Sparrow in to see him too, their friendship is cemented, though it's not all smooth sailing. In the end, Laura finally receives a letter from her parents, who say that "we're trying...we really are." They assure her that they love her and none of what happened is her fault.

Novel in verse. See also: And Then...Boom! by Lisa Fipps; Lety Out Loud by Angela Cervantes

Quotes

...and who wants a temporary place
to act like a forever one? (6)

...because lately it seems like
all the adults in my life listen, sure -
but just so they can tell me what to think
or what to do. (199)

Agent: Rebecca Eskilden
Editor: Tricia Lin show less

A beautifully told novel in verse about foster care from a child's point of view, who takes on all the blame of the adults in her world. For all Laura knows of her aunt - almost nothing, she calls her "My Aunt That Is Not My Aunt" - she could be a stranger, and living with all her rules is unbelievable; she never knows she did something wrong until she's scolded. In her new school, she tries to keep her head down, but is recognized as needing help reading. Fortunately, the librarian understands her and gives her graphic novels, not baby books. Graphic novels that she can relate to like "Guts" (:a true story about a fifth grader") and "The Okay Witch" where the girl looks like her.. Then she finds a puppy abandoned in its crate, show more dehydrated. She's devastated and runs to her aunt's apartment. She's so surprised when her aunt immediately takes the dog to the vet and says they can keep him. Her parents would never have let her have a dog! Laura starts to realize her aunt may not be as difficult as her parents told her. And that other people may really care about her and want to help her. I related to Laura with her love of birds (see the "Sixth-Grade Heron" chapter). Don't miss the Author's Note for information about foster care and therapy dogs. show less

Laura believes she is at fault for calling 911 when her parents were unresponsive and that’s why she’s being sent to live with an aunt she doesn’t know. While her parents are in rehab, Laura feels tremendous guilt for what she did to her parents and anger at the social worker and her aunt for keeping her away from them. Laura is determined to reunite with her parents by any means possible, even working on training her new puppy to be a therapy dog so she can bring him along to visit her parents in rehab. It takes time for Laura to realize that everyone is doing the best they can and that family doesn’t always have to look the way she thinks it should.

First sentence: The drive to Titi's house takes exactly eighteen minutes.
I know because my current Rubik's Cube solving time
is about two minutes,
and I solve my scratched-up, faded cube
a grand total of nine times.

Premise/plot: Something Like Home is a middle grade 'problem' novel written in verse. Laura Rodríguez Colón, our protagonist, is living with her aunt...temporarily...or not??? So much is up in the air since being separated from her parents. Life wasn't perfectly perfectly perfect living with her parents. But it was in some ways familiar chaos. Now there is SO much change and it's all happening so quickly. She's living in a new (to her) home with an aunt that is practically a stranger. She's going to a new school, has new show more teachers, new classmates. She has no idea what the future holds....enter a DOG, an adorable dog. Her situation doesn't necessarily change, but, her perspective starts to slowly but surely.

My thoughts: This isn't really an action-driven, big-things-happening novel. It is all about the main character's growth, her coming of age. There's also a dog, of course.

I liked this one. However I almost feel like I blinked and missed the ending. It could be ALL on me. Perhaps my brain tuned out the last dozen or so poems and I missed vital changes. But the last few poems seemed to come out of nowhere in terms of character growth. Again, this could be all me. I missed the AHA moment perhaps? I missed the moment where her and her aunt came together and decided to be besties. show less