Sumner, Jamie. Maid for It. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2023. 978-1-665-90577-0. 232 p. $17.99. Grades 4-7.
Sixth-grade Franny makes daily lists and breathes deeply to keep herself calm. It’s not easy: Franny worries a lot. Franny lives with her single mom, Julia, in a tiny apartment above a laundromat. It’s a fresh start for them: They moved there just after Franny’s mom got sober. One day, Franny is called to the school office: Franny’s mom was involved in a car accident. While not at fault, Julia’s car is totaled, and she has a fractured femur. After this event, Franny begins to worry constantly about her mom’s potential to relapse into substance abuse. Because her injured mom is unable to continue work as an Uber driver or house cleaner, Franny decides to take over the latter. Without telling her mother, Franny takes over the cleaning schedule after school each day. Franny tries to keep up with the new work schedule, school, and taking care of her mother. It’s a struggle. A deal with a classmate trying to stay out of trouble brings Franny some unexpected help—and an unexpected new friendship. With the assistance of friends and her mother’s sponsor, Mimi, Franny works tirelessly to overcome her own fears while her mother recovers.
THOUGHTS: The difficult topics of parental substance abuse and sobriety are handled thoughtfully in this middle grade story. Franny’s anxieties about a potential relapse feel very realistic, and Franny’s actions—including her takeover of mom’s house cleaning jobs—are almost all driven by the overwhelming fear that her mother may begin to use drugs again. Readers will empathize deeply with Franny over her desire to seek normalcy and academic success while continuing to keep a watchful eye over her own mother. Franny’s mother is portrayed as realistic, loving, tough, and yet ultimately vulnerable at the same time. Maid for It focuses on the long term impacts of substance abuse on users and their families. While Franny and Julia are given an uplifting ending, ongoing issues with substance abuse among minor characters are still present.
Realistic Fiction