Book Review & Giveaway: The Echo Park Castaways

I am easily sentimental, but not easily impressed.

But boy, was I impressed by this wonderful book by M.G. Hennessey!

Background:

Nevaeh, Vic, and Mara are veterans of the Los Angeles foster care system. For over a year they’ve been staying with Mrs. K in Echo Park. Vic spends most of his time living in a dream world, Mara barely speaks, and Nevaeh is forced to act as a back-up parent. Though their situation isn’t ideal, it’s still their best home yet. 

Then Child Protective Services places Quentin in the house, and everything is turned upside down. Nevaeh really can’t handle watching over anyone else, especially a boy on the autism spectrum. Meanwhile, Quentin is having trouble adjusting and attempts to run away. 

So when Vic realizes Quentin just wants to see his mom again, he plans an “epic quest” to reunite them. It could result in the foster siblings getting sent to different group homes. But isn’t family always worth the risk?

The Review:

Told from the perspective of three of the four children (a brilliant choice by Hennessey), this story sucks you in from the very first page, placing you squarely in the shoes of children who find (or have found) themselves separated from their families and placed in foster care without any say over the matter. 

In the case of the story, Quentin's arrival is the unlikely catalyst for change for the four children. While their current foster home isn't terrible, it also isn't ideal, and each child dreams of a better future for themselves, whether it's being reunited with an absent parent, or making a future for yourself in which you can take control of your life.

The children's voices are spot-on, and their yearning and regrets fill the page. Hennessey does an excellent job of making us care about all of these children, and the quest they undertake is the perfect vehicle to propel the story forward. It helps that Hennessey volunteers as a court-appointed advocate to help kids navigate the Los Angeles foster care system - the story feels true and honest, and while it is a kid's book, few punches are pulled.

This book, and the stories of children in foster care, deserve to be told. In the end, all of us want to be part of a family. The Echo Park Castaways shares another vision for what that means.

5 stars!

The book is published by Harper and releases July 2, 2019.

Want to know more about the author?

Visit her website!

And finally....

Want to win an ARC of the book?

Leave a comment below telling me your favourite beach!  MG Minded will choose a winner on Sunday, June 16th. Good luck!

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Kids Need Books

While following activity on Book Twitter this spring, I saw the hashtag #KidsNeedBooks appearing more and more frequently. This movement, in a nutshell, came from a number of authors and educators trying to get books in the hands of kids to give them something to read during summer break.

When I was in elementary school, summer reading was one of the greatest things about the break. The local library had a program that tracked your reading throughout those months, with little prizes along the way and a party of sorts at the end. Even so many years later, I can clearly remember walking through that overpoweringly air-conditioned building and exploring the shelves each week, and the anticipation that would build with each title I would add to my growing “To Be Read” pile.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an experience widely shared by many of my own students. Too many of them don’t see summer break as a chance to dive into reading and fill their heads with new adventures, but instead a time that brings a lot of instability and insecurity into their daily lives. Wouldn’t it be great if all kids, from the ones who frequent the bookstores or libraries to the ones taking their summer break one day at a time, had at least one book they could escape into for part of their day?

As the last day of school gets closer for my students and me, I’m taking gradual steps to close down my classroom. In doing so I’m reminded how my classroom library is so much more extensive than what I have displayed on the limited space I have available for my bookshelves. I keep most of the library boxed up during much of the year, rotating the titles with each academic term to keep them fresh and keep the kids interested. As I see these boxes and boxes stuffed full with books — novels, nonfiction, picture books, graphic novels, hardcovers, paperbacks, even a few galleys, you name it — it occurs to me a lot of the books I’ve collected over the years aren’t living up to their potential being packed away.

I think I’m going to do something about that this year. In the spirit of the #KidsNeedBooks movement, which I would encourage everyone to learn about, I’m going to sort through the pile before packing them away for the year and make them available for my students. Book ownership really comes to pass when you read a book, but it’s a powerful thing at that age to be able to hold a book you love in your hands and know that copy is yours, and that you can re-read it as many times as you want.

One book can change how a kid might think about the world. The summer gives them plenty of time to do that thinking. Anyone interested in learning more about this movement should look up the hashtag, and see what kinds of exciting things have happened after a few people following through on a simple idea.

#KidsNeedBooks