Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I love Maine, folks. I mean, I really love Maine. The rocky coast, the miles of forest, the wind and the water and the mist–I love it all. And not only does Cynthia Lord’s Touch Blue take place in Maine–on an island, no less!–it’s also by a Newbery author AND features a foster sibling (I had one of those!). It was a foregone conclusion for it to end up on my to-read shelf; the only surprise is that it’s taken me this long to get to it.

Good things come to those who wait, however, and I did really enjoy this one. Tess’s small island school lost 5 students when her friend Amy’s family moved to the mainland, and now the state is saying it’s too small to keep open. The island’s solution is for certain families to take in foster children, and Tess’s family is excited to welcome Aaron, a 13-year-old who isn’t nearly as excited to meet his third foster family in three years. Touch Blue walks an interesting line between an improbable positivity (with at least one highly unlikely circumstance) and a gentle awareness of the plight of a foster child; it’s more realistic but less piercing than Pictures of Hollis Woods, with a simplified but still honest view of parents who have lost custody of their children and the children who are forced to deal with the fallout. I kind of wanted the story’s bully to get a bit more of what was coming to him, but overall this was a truly enjoyable read with a hopeful but realistic ending. My emotionally astute 10-year-old just might be getting this for Christmas!