AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile
Monika Felice Smith gives a perfect voice to Cora, the 12-year-old at the heart of Sarno’s achingly beautiful debut novel about finding home in a world turned upside down. Since the death of her father, Cora must move from shelter to shelter to survive. Smith’s emotionally connected narration wrings the pathos from Cora’s situation without succumbing to melodrama. With her mother at work, Cora is responsible for her “special” younger sister, Adare, who attends classes for “different” children. This burden of responsibility becomes too difficult for Cora, resulting in some terrifying scenes, interpreted by Smith with flawless pitch and pacing. Sarno fleshes out even the minor players, with Smith’s well-characterized performance subtly distinguishing among them. This story will remain with listeners for a long time. S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
06/25/2018
Sarno’s debut novel relays the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of a family searching for a place to belong. Alongside their mother, 12-year-old Cora and her younger sister, Adare, have lugged their meager possessions from one Brooklyn address to another since their father’s death. Now, living in a shelter, Cora muses, “We’re homeless. For real.” While her mother works long hours as a store clerk, Cora looks after keenly intuitive Adare, who was “born special” and constantly smiles but rarely speaks. Cora is a zealous tree climber and lover of all growing things; she treasures her Tree Book, in which her gardener father meticulously recorded his field notes, and she now documents the trees surrounding every place she lives. As Cora sees Brooklyn from a variety of perspectives (the trees she climbs, a shelter, a fancy high-rise) and her family looks for a place to stay, she considers the meanings of belonging and home. Sarno easily pulls readers into the tangled lives of her credible characters and their struggles to put down roots in this exploration of family and friendship, loss and resilience. Ages 8–12. (June)
From the Publisher
"[R]ich and evocative . . . . A moving book about an all-too-common childhood experience, which is fairly uncommon in children's literature." —Booklist
"Troubling, affecting, and ultimately uplifting, from a promising debut novelist."—Kirkus Reviews
"[A] thought provoking debut about the meaning of home and the importance of family."—Horn Book Magazine
"This is a beautiful book. I loved Cora who was so warm and real. I cried over her hard life, but was thrilled over her choices. I wanted her to succeed; I wanted her to be happy. The ending of this book was wonderful; I'll never forget it." -Patricia Reilly Giff, author of Eleven
"This beautiful novel grabbed me from page one and never let go. Simply put, I loved this book. Cora and Adare wormed their way into my heart. I rooted for them, I ached for them. An incredible debut novel. I'm already a Sarno fan and can't wait to see what she does next." -Susin Nielsen, author of We Are All Made of Molecules
AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile
Monika Felice Smith gives a perfect voice to Cora, the 12-year-old at the heart of Sarno’s achingly beautiful debut novel about finding home in a world turned upside down. Since the death of her father, Cora must move from shelter to shelter to survive. Smith’s emotionally connected narration wrings the pathos from Cora’s situation without succumbing to melodrama. With her mother at work, Cora is responsible for her “special” younger sister, Adare, who attends classes for “different” children. This burden of responsibility becomes too difficult for Cora, resulting in some terrifying scenes, interpreted by Smith with flawless pitch and pacing. Sarno fleshes out even the minor players, with Smith’s well-characterized performance subtly distinguishing among them. This story will remain with listeners for a long time. S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-03-04
Life is not going well for Cora.Ever since her Irish-immigrant father died six years ago, the 12-year-old, her Mexican-American mom, and her younger sister, Adare, who was "born special" and speaks little, have been living in a series of temporary homes—and now they're in a grim Brooklyn shelter. Through it all Cora has persevered, getting her sister to and from school and charting (and climbing) the trees around where she's lived, keeping up her father's horticultural work. But she's struggling in math, bullied, friendless, and, after their shelter room is ransacked, homeless. After her mom's friend Willa takes them in, Cora begins to imagine a more stable life—but living with Willa would take away what little autonomy her mom still has. Cora makes friends with a classmate who lives on a houseboat, rootless but not homeless, and each uses this friendship as a path to a more satisfying life. Cora's first-person narrative voice occasionally strays away from age-appropriate but never enough to diminish her poignant—even desperate—situation, as she strives to provide what Adare needs while chasing her own limited dreams. Even after they move into a "placement," a gritty complex that's too dangerous—"somewhere you can't go after school on your own"—to be a home, challenges realistically persist.Troubling, affecting, and ultimately uplifting, from a promising debut novelist. (Fiction. 10-14)
