Something Like Home. Andrea Beatriz Arango. 2023. 256 pages. [Source: Library] [verse novel; middle grade]
First sentence: The drive to Titi's house takes exactly eighteen minutes.
I know because my current Rubik's Cube solving time
is about two minutes,
and I solve my scratched-up, faded cube
a grand total of nine times.
Premise/plot: Something Like Home is a middle grade 'problem' novel written in verse. Laura Rodríguez Colón, our protagonist, is living with her aunt...temporarily...or not??? So much is up in the air since being separated from her parents. Life wasn't perfectly perfectly perfect living with her parents. But it was in some ways familiar chaos. Now there is SO much change and it's all happening so quickly. She's living in a new (to her) home with an aunt that is practically a stranger. She's going to a new school, has new teachers, new classmates. She has no idea what the future holds....enter a DOG, an adorable dog. Her situation doesn't necessarily change, but, her perspective starts to slowly but surely.
My thoughts: This isn't really an action-driven, big-things-happening novel. It is all about the main character's growth, her coming of age. There's also a dog, of course.
I liked this one. However I almost feel like I blinked and missed the ending. It could be ALL on me. Perhaps my brain tuned out the last dozen or so poems and I missed vital changes. But the last few poems seemed to come out of nowhere in terms of character growth. Again, this could be all me. I missed the AHA moment perhaps? I missed the moment where her and her aunt came together and decided to be besties.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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