Part of Scholastic’s WISH line of “fun, engaging, books for kids 8-12 centered on family and friendship,” this novel looks at some of the challenges of blending families. Twelve-year-old protagonist Janie feels that if she just sticks to her schedule, she and her mom have their lives under control. When her mom remarries, however, and her stepmom, Keisha, moves in with her daughter Makayla, Janie’s perfect schedule is thrown out of whack. Also, Makayla has a cat—and Janie hates cats.
When Janie tries to reach out and involve Makayla in the Sunshine Club at school, a volunteer organization that Janie helped found, her friends welcome her—almost too much. Janie begins to feel like they’re paying more attention to Makayla than to her—and she’s getting the same vibe from her mom. Makayla’s cat becomes the only one who pays attention to Janie.
As Janie navigates these shifting relationships, she tries to stay bound to her strict schedule. Some days are for certain friends; other times are for family. This may seem overly rigid to readers, but we learn that Janie’s mom has some mental health challenges (possibly bipolar disorder, although this is never stated), and Janie instituted her schedule in order to help her mom function better. Janie feels that deviating from the schedule could lead back to difficult times like the two of them have experienced. Janie must learn to trust that Keisha is now there to help her mom with things like remembering to take her medicine, and that Janie doesn’t have to parent her parent. She must eventually decide, too, whether a little more flexibility could actually be beneficial at times. Her rigidity is put to the test when her best friend, who is coming out as nonbinary, needs her help.
While the story touches on some serious topics, the book lives up to the goal of being fun and engaging. I particularly like that it centers a queer family of color, and a queer blended family, both still relatively rare depictions in the genre.
Readers who enjoyed this book may also like author Jazz Taylor’s first book for the WISH line, Meow or Never.
