And Then Boom by Lisa Fipps

 

And Then Boom!  By Lisa Fipps  244 pages

Joe Oak is used to living on unsteady ground. His mom can't be depended on as she never stays around long once she gets “the itch,” and now he and his beloved grandmother find themselves without a home. Fortunately, Joe has an outlet in his journals and drawings and takes comfort from the lessons of comic books -- superheroes have a lot of “and then, boom” moments, where everything threatens to go bust but somehow they land on their feet. And that seems to happen a lot to Joe too, as in this crisis his friend Nick helps them find a home in his trailer park. But things fall apart again when Joe is suddenly left to fend for himself. He doesn't tell anyone he's on his own, as he fears foster care and has hope his mom will come back. But time is running out -- bills are piling up, the electricity's been shut off, and the school year's about to end, meaning no more free meals. The struggle to feed himself gets intense, and Joe finds himself dumpster diving for meals. He's never felt so alone -- until an emaciated little dog and her two tiny pups cross his path. And fate has even more in store for Joe, because an actual tornado is about to hit home -- and just when it seems all is lost, his life turns in a direction that he never could have predicted.

Written in verse so I finished this in one day.  Very sad story about a boy who is abandoned by his mother and ends up living on his own trying to survive. 

Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans

 Miles to Go  by Richard Paul Evans  320 pages

Alan Christoffersen, a once-successful advertising executive, wakes one morning to find himself injured, alone, and confined to a hospital bed in Spokane, Washington. Sixteen days earlier, reeling from the sudden loss of his wife, his home, and his business, Alan left everything he knew behind and set off on the cross-country journey of a lifetime. But a vicious roadside stabbing interrupted Alan's trek and robbed him of his one source of solace: the ability to walk. Homeless and facing months of difficult recovery, Alan has nowhere to turn--until a mysterious woman enters his life and invites him into her home.

An astonishing tale of life and death, suffering and healing, love and second chances, Miles to Go picks up the story of The Walk, continuing this unforgettable bestselling series about one man's unrelenting search for hope.

I read The Walk, not knowing it was a series.  When the book ended I was sad because I wanted to know what happened to him. So I was very excited to find the next book and now know that it is a series.  This story picks up after Alex has decided to walk across America after losing everything.  He was attacked and assumed for dead.  This book tells of his story of recovery and where he picks up on his walk, the people he meets along and the way and how he helps them and they help him. Very easy read and a page turned to find out what he will encounter next.

Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O'Shaughnessy

 

Lasagna Means I Love You   by Kate O'Shaughnessy  

360 pages

Nan was all the family Mo ever needed. But suddenly she's gone, and Mo finds herself in foster care after her uncle decides she's not worth sticking around for. Nan left her a notebook and advised her to get a hobby, like ferret racing or palm reading. But how could a hobby fix anything in her newly topsy-turvy life? Then Mo finds a handmade cookbook filled with someone else's family recipes. Even though Nan never cooked, Mo can't tear her eyes away. Not so much from the recipes, but the stories attached to them. Though, when she makes herself a pot of soup, it is every bit as comforting as the recipe notes said. Soon Mo finds herself asking everyone she meets for their family recipes. Teaching herself to make them. Collecting the stories behind them. Building a website to share them. And, okay, secretly hoping that a long-lost relative will find her and give her a family recipe all her own. But when everything starts to unravel again, Mo realizes that if she wants a family recipe -- or a real family -- she's going to have to make it up herself. 

A Mark Twain Nominee for grades 4-6.  This was a sad book with a very happy ending.  Sad because a young girl who has lived with her Grandma since her mother passed away, is now an orphan and no one wants her, even the Foster family that says they will adopt her.  But in the end she finds a family and also finds out that she doesn't need someone else to make her feel special.  She learns a new hobby and makes new friends along the way.

The Christmas Star by Donna VanLiere

The Christmas Star by Donna VanLiere 226 pages This book was so sweet and even though I predicted what would happen, it had a great story and ending. Great story of foster care and second chances. Thirty-two-year-old Amy Denison volunteers at Glory's Place, an after school program where she meets seven-year-old Maddie, a precocious young girl who has spent her childhood in foster care. Unbeknownst to Amy, Maddie is a mini-matchmaker, with her eye on just the right man for Amy at Grandon Elementary School, where she is a student. Amy is hesitant - she's been hurt before, and isn't sure she's ready to lose her heart again - but an unexpected surprise makes her reconsider her lonely lifestyle. As Christmas nears and the town is blanketed in snow and beautiful decorations, Maddie and the charming staff at Glory's Place help Amy to see that romance can be more than heartache and broken promises.

It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke

It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke - 288 pages

Alabama, 1947.

War's over, cherry-print dresses, parking above the city lights, swing dancing.
Beautiful, seventeen-year-old Violet lives in a perfect world.
Everybody loves her.
In 2012, she's still beautiful, charming, and surrounded by admirers.

Veronica "Ronni" Johnson, licensed practical nurse and aspiring writer, meets the captivating Violet in the assisted living facility where Violet requires no assistance, just lots of male attention. When she dies, she leaves Ronni a very generous bequest―only if Ronni completes a book about her life within one year. As she's drawn into the world of young Violet, Ronni is mesmerized by life in a simpler time. It's an irresistible journey filled with revelations, some of them about men Ronni knew as octogenarians at Fairfield Springs.

Struggling, insecure, flailing at the keyboard, Ronni juggles her patients, a new boyfriend, and a Samsonite factory of emotional baggage as she tries to craft a manuscript before her deadline.

But then the secrets start to emerge, some of them in person. And they don't stop.

Everything changes.

Alternating chapters between Homecoming Queen Violet in 1947 and can't-quite-find-her-crown Ronni in the present, IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU is Southern Fiction at its hilarious, warm, sad, outrageous, uplifting, and stunning best. In the tradition of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and Olive Kitteridge, Duke delivers an unforgettable elderly character to treasure and a young heroine to steal your heart.

This book keeps you guessing until the end, and the twists and turns that it takes keeps you rivited.  

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson, 148 pages

The Great Gilly Hopkins is a book about eleven year old foster child Galadriel (Gilly for short) Hopkins who is sent to live in foster home after foster home, searching for some place to settle into and hoping her mother comes back for her. When Gilly finds herself placed with Maime Trotter, she finds herself getting very attached to her new home and the other foster child in the home, seven year old William Ernest and the blind neighbor.  Will Gilly's mother come back for her?  This book has won several awards, including a 1979 Newberry Honor.  In 2016, the book was made into a movie which I also highly recommend!

Shifting by Bethany Wiggins

Shifting by Bethany Wiggins, 353 pages

18 year old Magdalene Mae has found herself tossed, once again, out of the current foster home she was in and placed in the care of her Social Worker's mother. Her long lists of arrests for nudity follow in her wake, but how does Magdalene explain it's because of her shifting during a full moon. Lately, though, her gift has been unpredictable and she is finding herself starting to change in the most inopportune moments. (Like during track practice.)
However, she finds her newest foster home in the tiny town of Silver City, New Mexico quite welcoming and a fresh new start -- if not for the school where she is bullied endlessly. She has landed her first job and now that she's on the cusp of adulthood, she is hoping that everything goes her way. Unfortunately, things start heading for the worse just as they started getting better. To complicate everything is the unwavering attention from high school popular rich kid - Bridger O'Connell. Bridger has a few secrets hiding as well and some could very well spell the end of Magdalene's life.

One For the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

One For the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, 224 pages
(A 2014-2015 Truman Award Nominee)

Being a foster kid is hard. You feel a loyalty to your family but you also create a bond with your foster family. A severe beating lands 12 year old Carley Connors and her mother in the hospital.  When Carley recovers, she is placed in foster care with the Murphy family. At first, she is reluctant to let them in but after some time she grows attached to Julie Murphy and her three sons. The relationship between Mr. Murphy and Carley is a little more complicated as Carley doesn't trust men. The shame that some foster children feel is portrayed through Carley in her interactions at school and in the home. The desire for something better and the loyalty to return to your own family is also underlined. This story will tug at your heart and soul as you read through the emotions, thoughts and feelings that a young foster child goes through. The author definitely did her homework on foster children and foster care.