First up is Summer of the Wolves by Polly Carlson-Voiles. Briefly, Nika and her little brother Randall have been in a few foster homes following their mother's death (dad had been dead for a while); their latest is a good one, but their foster mother gets sick and needs to give up fostering for a while. Coincidentally, a long-lost uncle is discovered and agrees to host the kids for a few weeks in Minnesota. Uncle Ian studies wolves in the Boundary Waters and, the first day he takes Nika out with him, they find an orphaned wolf pup who they take home to raise. As the wolf, Khan, grows older, Nika grows more attached to this new home, at least until the inevitable misunderstanding and falling-out. Actually, I expected this book to be a lot more predictable; few of the beats fell where I expected them. Nika's relationships develop very naturally, which is to say, a lot of false starts and brief spats and very little reliance on the cliche of the steady build, big falling-out, and inevitable epiphany and reunion. There are some exciting scenes, but mostly it's a quiet, warm kind of book. Interestingly, this "girl book", like the two below, seem more gender neutral than the preceding "boy books"; that dynamic seems a bit backwards. The assumption seems to be that girls will read books about boys, but the reverse can't be true. But we'll see.
Next up, Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (another thing these books share - authors with three names!). This was the only book on the list I had already read, but I read it again. It also has the advantage going in of being a book that tons of kids have already read, although that didn't push The False Prince to a win, so it might not be as big an advantage as I'd have thought last year. I like a lot about this book, although I think the character of Dell Duke is a misstep - yet another incompetent, slobbish fatty. You can make a character fat and allow them to be happy. And not just happy, but smart and capable and successful! I swear! Anyway.
I just went and read The Book Smugglers' review of this book and found myself nodding along with their objections as well: Dell's bonkers counseling "strategies" that are portrayed as relatively harmless quirks, the fact that Pattie is sitting on a ton of money that she won't spend on her own kids (there's frugal living and then there's living illegally in a garage) but busts out for the very special (and don't you forget it) Willow, etc., etc.
But still, I enjoyed it! I like that Willow learns to be more of risk-taker and to embrace uncertainty. I like the diversity of the characters. I like the stuff about plants. It made me start thinking about places that could use a nice garden. I will recommend it to kids, although I suspect most of them won't need me to because they've already heard from teachers and friends that this is a book they should be reading.
Finally, One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, which I finished last night. I did not mean to read to the end when I sat down with this book - I was only a couple chapters in, but I just couldn't find a good place to set it down and, before I knew it, the end was only a few chapters away and, well, here we are. It's weird and kind of great that there are so many books about foster care out there and on this list. And they're all pretty good!
I don't have quite enough distance from this to have thought of anything insightful to say, but I think it'll be a hit. Carley is a great character, very hard not to root for.
