Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Okay, I’m still tired, but since it’s Monday morning I imagine you are, too! Either way, I’m finally reviewing Kate Messner’s The Trouble with Heroes, which I love love LOVED. It was already on my radar when it turned up on the preview list for Battle of the Books, but needing to preview it bumped it way up on my endless TBR list, and I’m so very glad it did.

So. If I could describe it in one sentence, it would be this: Gary D. Schmidt could have written this book. And if you know me, you know that compliments don’t come much higher. On the other hand, Gary D. Schmidt doesn’t really do verse novels, and Trouble with Heroes takes place in New York, not New England. It follows Finn Connelly, who lost his dad physically during Covid and metaphorically–to some degree, at least–after 9/11. (His dad was a NYC firefighter.) Hurting and angry at the rough hand he’s been dealt, he gets caught on camera kicking over a gravestone at the cemetery. In lieu of paying for a new one, which his family definitely does not have the money for, he agrees (somewhat under duress) to climb mountains instead. (Explaining why would take longer than it’s worth, since you really just need to read the book.) Suddenly his summer becomes a series of summits, accompanied by a varied group of climbers who have been there before; along the way, he loses some of his anger, makes a few discoveries about his dad, and finds his own way to being his own kind of hero.

Did I mention I loved this book? Finn’s journey is both heartbreaking and hopeful, his automatic text response to his mother while climbing adds both humor and tension by the end, and the entire story is satisfying in an ALL THE FEELS kind of way. I have yet to see what my 5th grader thinks of it, but as for me, I probably need to own this book.

In the meantime, we finally had a calmer weekend, which was lovely, and spring break is next week. Hallelujah!