Tag Archives: Theft

MG – The Family I’m In

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Flake, Sharon G. The Family I’m In. Scholastic, 2025. 978-1-338-57320-6. 276 p. $18.99. Grades 7-9. 

John McIntyre is a short, African American teen with bumps on his chin and a precarious relationship with his macho dad. Despite his annoyance with his father for pressuring him to get a girlfriend, John wants one. His best friend Caleb has broken up with his girlfriend, the lovely and confident Maleeka. Caleb has many distractions. Caleb’s father, Mr. Porter, has had massive strokes and is now disabled. With the Porter family’s financial situation in jeopardy, Caleb contemplates not returning to school and working full-time to support his family. This impressionable summer before senior year has many ups and downs for John, who sheds his nickname, JJ, for just John. He excels at archery, not the typical sport his father would prefer, though he purchased John’s equipment for him. His father has a new wife and a new son, with another child on the way. Successful and generous, Mr. McIntyre is a hard act to follow, and John vacillates between admiring his father and being frustrated with his efforts to pigeon-hole John’s personality and future. He remains in this teetering position with Caleb also. Ever the caring son, Caleb not only is his family’s breadwinner, but he provides physical care for his dad. When he is not working his summer job in the bookmobile, John hangs out at Caleb’s house, though Caleb’s distant behavior makes for some volatile conflicts between the two. In The Family I’m In, author Sharon G. Flake makes John the focus of this coming of age drama and his struggles with relationships, his desire to know who he wants to be, and what place he holds as his father’s son and as a member of a blended family. Sharon G. Flake adds this title to her other books, The Skin I’m In and The Life I’m In. As young readers observe, John negotiates the teen romance world and the responsible adult world, and they will find Draper’s down-to-earth prose and dialogue relatable, cisgender boys in particular.  

THOUGHTS: The Family I’m In depicts an urban neighborhood, a bit down on the heels, but with close families. Closeness is key in this book: John is close to his mother; to his best friend; to his friend’s ailing father. He wants to be close with his father, and his father wants to be close to his son; but they keep miscommunicating. John wants to feel a part of his father’s new family, but he feels shut out. Most of all, he wants to be accepted by a girl. Awkward and unconfident, to be accepted would give John validation and boost his self esteem. The plot in this story is like watching people live. I found it a satisfying read, one many of my students will appreciate. 

Realistic Fiction   

MG – A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

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Warga, Jasmine. A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall. HarperCollins, 2024. 978-0-062-95670-5. $19.99. 224 p. Grades 4-8.

Rami Ahmed is not having a very good sixth-grade year. For some reason, his best friends have abandoned him in middle school, he feels invisible, and he is wondering more about his dad who abandoned him and his mother when Rami was two. Now, someone has stolen Untitled, pastoral painting from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum, where his mother heads the custodial staff. As suspicion falls on her, Rami’s worries are compounded by the sight of a ghost-like young girl floating around the museum who coincidentally resembles the girl in the missing painting. At a chance meeting at the local library, Rami bumps into Veda, a school friend, who has her own theories about the museum heist. When they team up to test those theories and vindicate Rami’s mom, Rami discovers Veda also can see and communicate with the figure that they rename Blue. Loud, talkative Veda shares an immigrant parent (Rami’s mother is Lebanese and Veda’s is from India) with Rami, is as interested in solving the mystery as he is, and has a plan. As the two travel around their small town of Maple Lake piecing together their clues, the reader is privy to the thoughts and activities of Agatha the turtle that resides in the museum’s garden. In this relatively short text with brief chapters, the writer reveals the painting’s long history interspersed with clues from a wise and brave turtle. Though the ending is a bit abrupt, it promises satisfying results for the characters.

THOUGHTS: With the decrease in children’s reading stamina, it’s good to have a short book to turn to that has the look of an early chapter book, but the depth of story that appeals to an older reader. Rami’s initial awkwardness with people and reticence to divulge his feelings to his mother will relate to many readers. Author Jasmine Warga has tried her hand with different genres and unique plots successfully; this book is no exception. Besides the over-arching story, there is an underbelly here. Rami is sensitive to his mother’s feelings. The reader doesn’t learn why Rami’s father left, aside from the fact his parents were married young. We also don’t really learn about Rami’s estrangement from his friends, other than a rejection suffered at lunch and an embarrassing accident with the lunch tray. The painter of the picture is connected to the person who took it, but we don’t learn much about them either. I think this is all okay, for it gives the reader the chance to form their own conclusions and put their imaginations to good use.

Fantasy/Mystery

YA – Invisible Son

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Johnson, Kim. Invisible Son. Random House, 2023. 978-0-593-48210-0. 394 p. $18.99. Grades 7-12.

Andre Jackson has just returned from his time at a juvenile detention center for a crime he didn’t commit, but one he copped to in order to save a friend. Matched with an eager, well-intentioned probation officer, Marcus Smith, Andre’s re-entry to his grandparents’ home, one of the only African American families left in a gentrified neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, is made even more difficult with the rumors of a new kind of virus people are catching. The well-to-do Whitakers across the street have two biological children, Brian and Kate, and three adopted ones, Sierra, Eric, and Luis. When the police fingered Andre for possession of stolen items, the imposing and politically ambitious Mr. Whitaker offered his own lawyer for Andre’s defense. Now, two months later, Andre views the seemingly perfect Whitaker family with suspicion. Sierra, his former girlfriend, never visited him in prison. Her brother Eric has run away without a word to anyone, including Sierra. Mr. Whitaker’s superficially kind gestures may hide some ugly secrets while his wife’s aloofness may mask her real feelings about Andre and her adopted African American and Mexican children. In addition, Andre has to grapple with the biased former probation officer, Cowboy Jim Adkins, following him and threatening him. Andre knows he was set up for the crime, but doesn’t know how to prove it. When Andre comes across information that indicates that Eric may not be a runaway, Andre believes finding Eric is the key to his real freedom. If working out why he was framed while still keeping on the straight and narrow wasn’t stressful enough, Andre tackles the world of COVID with its casualties and the protests following George Floyd’s killing. Author Kim Johnson finds an authentic voice in the character of Andre Jackson and develops an intricate plot of a young Black teen searching for justice during the beginning stages of the pandemic. An added bonus is that each chapter has a musical score, and Andre’s playlist is included.

THOUGHTS: This novel unearths several current issues: gentrification, racism, transracial adoption, and the recent pandemic. There are many layers at work, too: the shame Andre’s family feels about this good son being imprisoned; the facade of the white Whitaker family as the do-gooders; the contrast between the two different probation officers; and Andre’s own conflict in his inability to defend himself properly despite his innocence. Setting the story during the pandemic also brings up recent memories of being confined, lack of resources, and, of course, the strain on the health system and the deaths of many. I believe this book is a good title for class reading in a literature circle or summer reading assignment. Much to discuss here, especially as we go into another election cycle, perhaps with the candidate that denied the existence of the virus at the start.

Realistic Fiction