Skylark

April 15, 2014
Grades 6-9 Angie Kirkpatrick has a rolling address. After her father, an unemployed bricklayer, leaves the family to find work in another city, the 14-year-old, her mother, and her 16-year-old brother find themselves living in their 1982 Buick Skylark. Angie's mom attempts to keep the family routine as normal as she can as they wait for a subsidized apartment, managing a complex maze of ever-changing parking spots and visits to the public library and pool. A chance visit to the family's favorite coffee shop during a poetry slam inspires Angie to write and begin competing. Soon she is able to channel her pain and fear into art and finds something positive to cling to in the midst of the chaos. The story's tidy resolution is foreshadowed in the opening pages, but any teen who has felt like an outsider will identify with Angie's attraction to the coffee-shop scene and be inspired by her family's determination to support one another. The short chapters, simple language, and matter-of-fact narration make this Orca Soundings entry of appeal to reluctant readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Angie and her mother and brother are living in their car while they wait for public housing and for her absent father to return. When she starts participating in poetry slams, Angie finds some comfort. The solutions to the family's problems are offered too easily, rendering the characters passive; but the resourceful family is likable, and readers will be invested in the story's outcome.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)