From the author of the Family Fletcher series, this funny novel follows the Fletchers’ neighbors, the Johnston-Fischers, a two-mom family who are the Fletchers’ neighbors. After one of the moms, a blogger, wins a fellowship to take a family train trip across the country and write about it, they pack up their three daughters (biological and adopted; two White and one Asian) and eldest daughter’s boyfriend, and depart. As with the Lotterys, it is the sensible middle child (in this case, 12-year-old Sara) whose perspective forms the bulk of the tale.
Most of the book is framed as Sara’s summer journal, which she writes to escape “the endless family togetherness” of the trip. Her writing is interspersed with notes from her moms, sisters, and assorted other characters to give us a textured look at the family, the people they encounter, and Sara’s personal transformation during the summer between elementary and middle school.
The fact of having same-sex parents isn’t at all the focus, but nor does Levy shy away from moments when it makes a difference, as when Sara hesitates to ask another character about his family because “as someone with two moms, I know all too well how annoying family questions can be.”
Levy mixes hilarious family escapades with amusing facts about the places they visit, and throws in a distinct but not pedantic dash of social justice, mostly through Sara’s elder sister Laura, who is considering dropping out of college to be an activist. Despite the humor, though, the book also offers much insight into the nature of relationships, familial and otherwise, and ends up being surprisingly touching.
