Summer Book 18

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from First to Read in exchange for my honest review, so here we go.

I was first introduced to Ms. Woodson's work when I read Brown Girl Dreaming for one of my classes when I was pursuing my library science degree, so when the opportunity came to read an advance copy of her newest book, I jumped at the chance. This is written for middle grades, which is a younger audience than the young adult books I usually read, but a good book is a good book, no matter what age it is written for.

This book is told by Haley, whose father is in prison for killing her mother in a car accident. She is in a class at school with five other children, and it is a "special" class, but it is unclear why they are in this "special" class. On Fridays, from 2pm until the end of the school day, these six children got to the ARTT room. There they talk about anything and everything. They learn about Esteban's father who was picked up by immigration, about Amari not being able to play with his toy guns anymore because of an incident where a young, black boy was killed, about Tiago and the prejudices his family feels because they speak Spanish all the time, about Ashton who doesn't feel like he feels in because he's white, about Haley's situation with her parents. We never really learn about Holly in the room, and I am not sure why that is (and frankly, it's one of the reasons I could never give this five stars on Amazon). These adolescent kids learn about the world and themselves in that room on Fridays.

There are some problems with the book though. As I mentioned, we never really hear about Holly except that she is perceived as rich by her peers. That seems unfair, when all the other kids share. There's also the jump in time from midwinter to Easter. Like, most of the book takes place in a succession of Fridays, but then jumps several months. That doesn't work for me. The ending also seems rushed and doesn't really fit.

Like I said, I knew going in that this would be a good book, and it was, but there were some flaws that I just couldn't overlook.